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PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 


PRIMITIVE  SOCIETY 


BY 

ROBERT  H.  LOWIE,  Ph.D. 

ASSOCIATE    CURATOR,    ANTHROPOLOGY,    AMERICAN    MUSEUM    OF 
NATURAL    HISTORY 

AUTHOR   OF   "culture    AND    ETHNOLOGY" 


BONI   AND    LIVERIGHT 
NEW  YORK  1920 


Copyright,  1920, 
BONI  &  LIVERIGHT 


All  rights  reserved 


Printed  in  the  United  States  0/  America 


PREFACE 

ANTHROPOLOGISTS  are  hard  put  to  it  when  asked 
to  recommend  a  book  that  shall  give  the  layman  a 
brief  summary  of  what  is  now  known  regarding  their 
science  as  a  whole  or  any  one  of  its  branches.  They  are 
usually  obliged  to  confess  that  such  an  up-to-date  synthesis 
as  is  likely  to  satisfy  the  questioner  does  not  exist.  In  no 
department  of  anthropology  has  the  want  of  a  modern  sum- 
mary made  itself  more  painfully  felt  than  in  that  of  social 
organization.  Sociologists,  historians,  and  students  of  com- 
parative jurisprudence  all  require  the  data  the  anthropolo- 
gist might  supply,  but  for  lack  of  a  general  guide  they  have 
been  content  to  find  inspiration  in  Morgan's  Ancient  So- 
ciety, a  book  written  when  scientific  ethnography  was  in  its 
infancy.  Since  1877  anthropologists  have  not  merely 
amassed  a  wealth  of  concrete  material  but  have  developed 
new  methods  and  points  of  view  that  render  Morgan  hope- 
lessly antiquated.  His  work  remains  an  important  pioneer 
effort  by  a  man  of  estimable  intelligence  and  exemplary 
industry,  but  to  get  one's  knowledge  of  primitive  society 
therefrom  nowadays  is  like  getting  one's  biology  from  some 
pre-Darwinian  naturalist.  It  is  emphatically  a  book  for 
the  historian  of  anthropology  and  not  for  the  general 
reader. 

As  I  discovered  during  a  year's  lecturing  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  California,  the  college  student  who  takes  anthropo- 
logical courses  suffers  as  grievously  from  the  want  of  an 
introductory  statement  on  primitive  social  organization  as 
the  interested  layman  or  the  investigator  of  neighboring 

V 


vi  PREFACE 

branches  of  knowledge.  It  is  the  requirements  of  these 
three  classes  of  readers  that  I  have  had  in  mind  in  the 
preparation  of  the  present  volume,  which  purports  to  pre- 
sent the  position  of  modern  American  workers. 

I  am  naturally  under  obligations  to  more  of  my  colleagues 
than  can  conveniently  be  named  here.  Above  all  I  must 
acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  my  preceptor,  Professor 
Franz  Boas,  the  champion  of  scientific  method  in  all  an- 
thropological research.  To  Dr.  Clark  Wissler  of  the  Amer- 
ican Museum  of  Natural  History  I  owe  abundant  and  varied 
field  experience  among  North  American  Indians  and  a 
great  deal  of  stimulation  in  our  common  field  of  specialist 
investigation,  the  Plains  area.  To  Professor  A.  L.  Kroeber 
I  am  indebted  for  the  opportunity  to  lecture  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  California  during  the  academic  year  of  1917-18, 
which  led  to  a  systematization  of  my  views  on  primitive 
society  and  thus  indirectly  to  the  present  volume.  Among 
many  of  my  Berkeley  associates  from  other  departments  I 
found  quite  unexpectedly  a  most  encouraging  interest  in 
anthropological  theory.  More  particularly,  I  was  stimu- 
lated by  my  friend  Professor  Francis  S.  Philbrick,  now 
of  Northwestern  University,  whose  broad  knowledge  of 
comparative  jurisprudence  helped  greatly  to  enlarge  my 
own  vision  of  primitive  law.  Finally,  I  must  express  my 
obligations  to  my  friend  Mr.  Leslie  Spier  of  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History  for  reading  and  acutely  criti- 
cising the  typescript  of  chapters  II  to  VIII  before  setting 
out  on  a  field  trip ;  and  to  Miss  Bella  Weitzner  for  the  com- 
petent preparation  of  the  index. 

Robert  H.  Lowie. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Preface    v 

I.     Introduction i 

11.     Marriage 14 

Marriage  Prohibitions.  Means  of  Acquiring 
a  Mate.  Preferential  Mating. 

III.  Polygamy 40 

Polygyny.  Polyandry.  Sexual  Communism. 
Hypothetical  Sexual  Communism. 

IV.  The  Family 63 

The  Bilateral  Kin  Group.  Looseness  of  the 
Family  Unit.  Matrilocal  and  Patrilocal  Resi- 
dence. Sexual  Division  of  Labor.  Segregation 
of  Unmarried.  Sexual  Segregation.  Adoption. 
Simimary. 

V.    Kinship  Usages 80 

Mother's  and  Father's  Kin.  Parent-in-law 
Taboo.  Other  Taboos.  Privileged  Familiarity. 
Taboo  and  License.    Teknonymy. 

VI.    The  Sib in 

Types  of  Sib  organization.  Unity  or  Diversity 
of  Origin.    Sibs  of  Higher  Order.    Totemism. 

VII,     History  of  the  Sib 147 

Priority  of  the  Family.  Origin  of  the  Sib, 
The  Sib  and  the  Dakota  Terminology.  Mother- 
Sibs  and  Father-Sibs. 

VIII.     The  Position  of  Woman 186 

Theory  and  Practice.  The  "  Matriarchate. " 
Matrilocal  Residence.  The  Economic  Interpre- 
tation.   Correlations  with  Stages  of  Civilization. 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

IX.    Property 205 

Primitive  Communism.  Tenure  of  Land. 
Chattels.    Incorporeal  Property.    Inheritance. 

X.    Associations 257 

Andaman  Islands.  Australia.  Masai.  Banks 
Islands.    Pueblo  Indians.    Crow.    Hidatsa. 

XI.     Theory  of  Associations 297 

Schurtz's  Scheme.  Sex  Dichotomy.  Age- 
Classes.  Varieties  of  Associations.  The  Plains 
Indian  Age-Societies.     General  Conclusions. 

XII.    Rank 338 

Bravery.  Shamanism.  Wealth.  Caste.  Con- 
clusion. 

XIII.  Government 358 

Australia.  Polynesia  and  Micronesia.  Melane- 
sia and  New  Guinea.  Africa.  North  America. 
Democracy  and  Primitive  Organizations. 
Tribal  and  Territorial  Organization. 

XIV.  Justice 397 

Collective  Responsibility.  Criminal  Motive. 
Weregild.  Evidence.  Australia.  Ifugao. 
Eskimo.  Plains  Indians.  Polynesia.  Africa. 
Conclusion. 

XV.     Conclusion 427 

Bibliography 443 

Index 451 


PRIMITIVE  SOCIETY 


PRIMITIVE  SOCIETY 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

PRIMITIVE  society  is  in  a  sense  coextensive  with  primi- 
tive civilization.  For  civilization  or  culture,  to  substi- 
tute the  ethnological  term,  is  according  to  Tylor's  famous 
definition  "that  complex  whole  which  includes  knowledge, 
belief,  art,  morals,  law,  custom,  and  any  other  capabilities 
and  habits  acquired  by  man  as  a  member  of  society" ; 
whence  it  follows  that  a  complete  consideration  of  society 
involves  a  study  of  all  the  phases  of  civilization.  No  such 
stupendous  task  is  here  attempted.  I  will  limit  myself  to 
those  aspects  of  culture  known  as  social  orc)ani:;ation,  i.e., 
I  will  deal  with  the  groups  intO'  which  society  is  divided, 
the  functions  of  these  groups,  their  mutual  relations,  and 
the  factors  determining  their  growth. 

Yet  so  closely  are  the  several  departments  of  civilization 
knitted  together  that  concentration  on  any  one  of  them  to 
the  exclusion  of  all  others  is  an  impracticable  undertaking. 
Recent  events  have  familiarized  us  with  the  mutual  depend- 
ence of  apparently  disparate  branches  of  culture.  Military 
operations  cannot  be  successfully  conducted  without  the 
activities  of  the  laboratory  scientist  and  of  the  husbandman. 
In  stages  of  lesser  advancement  the  same  principle  holds. 
If  we  wish  to  study  social  organization  it  is  impossible  to 
ignore  industrial  factors  because  often  society  is  organized 
precisely  along  industrial  lines,  intO'  guilds  of  blacksmiths 
and  architects,  shipwrights  and  tattooers.  Our  concern, 
however,  will  not  be  with  the  technical  processes  employed 

I 


2  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

by  these  artisans,  even  though  they  are  characteristic  of 
the  society  to  which  they  belong ;  we  shall  rather  deal  with 
the  position  of  each  body  in  the  community,  its  comparative 
status  of  superiority  or  inferiority,  its  prerogatives  and 
duties  as  one  of  a  number  of  parallel  or  intercrossing  aggre- 
gates. Similarly,  if  we  have  occasion  to  take  notice  of  re- 
ligious corporations,  interest  will  not  center  in  beliefs  or 
observances,  but  in  the  position  which  the  several  groups 
occupy  in  the  general  polity.  If  we  were  to  view  Christian- 
ity from  this  angle,  differences  as  to  auricular  confession  or 
the  theory  of  transubstantiation  would  figure  mainly  as 
group  labels,  while  the  rise  to  ascendancy  in  the  state  of 
one  body  of  believers,  the  degradation  of  another,  the  dis- 
abilities of  a  third,  would  primarily  engage  our  attention. 
Nevertheless  it  is  impossible  to  anticipate  how  much  knowl- 
edge of  religion  proper  would  prove  necessary  to  illuminate 
the  main  problem,  and  unawares  we  might  find  ourselves 
plunged  head  over  heels  into  the  subtleties  of  scholastic 
disputation.  It  is  not  otherwise  with  savage  peoples,  and 
in  order  to  gauge  with  accuracy  the  character  of  a  social 
organization  it  is  sometimes  essential  to  take  note  of  data 
representing  all  other  phases  of  aboriginal  activity. 

Scientifically  the  study  of  primitive  societies  does  not 
require  justification.  They  exist  and  as  part  of  reality 
Science  is  bound  to  take  note  of  them.  But  the  manner 
and  spirit  in  which  they  have  been  regarded  in  the  past  have 
differed  widely,  and  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  consider  some 
of  the  ideals  pursued  in  their  investigation. 

For  one  thing,  it  is  possible  to  assume  a  predominantly 
monographic  attitude.  Some  students  fix  their  gaze  upon 
a  single  people  at  a  single  epoch  of  its  existence,  and  en- 
deavor to  describe  this  one  culture  with  the  utmost  fidelity. 
In  the  higher  reaches  of  this  type  of  work  the  ethnographer 
becomes  an  artist  who  sympathetically  penetrates  into  the 
latent  spirit  of  his  culture  and  creates  a  picture  after  the 
fashion  of  Gobineau's  Renaissance.     That  is  the  ideal  of 


INTRODUCTION  3 

humanistic  research  acclaimed  by  the  philosopher  Windel- 
band  and  his  school.  To  them  each  manifestation  of  human 
history  represents  a  unique  phenomenon,  an  absolutely  in- 
definable set  of  values  that  can  merely  be  experienced 
through  the  visionary's  intuition  and  then  transmitted  in 
fainter  tints  to  his  public.  Ethnographic  effort  conducted 
in  this  spirit  would  result  in  a  gallery  of  cultural  portraits, 
each  complete  in  itself  and  not  related  with  the  rest. 

Such  an  attitude  toward  the  data  of  civilization  is  by  no 
means  inconsistent  with  scientific  aims,  and  inasmuch  as  it 
reveals  the  subtler  phases  of  culture  it  may  even  contribute 
indispensable  elements  to  a  complete  description  of  reality. 
But  it  is  equally  true  that  Science  cannot  rest  content  with 
this  aesthetic  immersion  in  distinct  manifestations  of  human 
society.  Indeed,  a  student  passing  successively  from  one 
of  these  reproductions  to  another  would  imperceptibly  yield 
to  a  mental  exercise  quite  different  from  the  impulse  that 
fired  the  painter  in  plumbing  the  individuality  of  his  sub- 
ject or  from  his  own  initial  attempt  at  re-creation.  Spon- 
taneously comparison  of  later  and  earlier  pictures  would 
blend  with  merely  absorptive  processes.  Against  the  mar- 
tial cast  of  one  culture  would  stand  out  the  devotional  twist 
of  another  or  the  blot  of  money-madness  in  a  third.  Re- 
semblances would  be  noted  as  well  as  differences,  and  the 
question  would  imperatively  obtrude  itself  how  both  are  to 
be  explained.  In  other  words,  phenomena  would  be  not 
merely  apperceived  by  themselves  but  viewed  in  their  re- 
lations. 

In  part  it  would  be  a  problem  of  causal  relations.  It  is 
natural  to  suppose  that  like  phenomena  must  have  like 
causes  and  accordingly  it  would  become  the  ethnologist's 
duty  to  determine  these :  a  priori  they  might  be  supposed  to 
lie  in  racial  affinity,  or  the  similarity  of  geographical  en- 
vironment, or  some  other  fundamental  condition  shared 
by  the  cultures  compared.  Practically,  however,  as  will  ap- 
pear later,  it  is  not  so  easy  to  isolate  such  determinants 


4  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

amidst  the  tremendous  complexities  of  cultural  data  and 
to  demonstrate  that  they  are  the  significant  factors.  In- 
deed, some  ethnologists  have  abandoned  all  hope  of  ever 
unraveling  them.  But  whether  the  quest  of  causal  relations 
be  a  hopeless  one  or  not,  one  kind  of  relation  can  never  be 
ignored  by  the  scientific  student  of  culture — the  chronologi- 
cal one.  Assume  that  our  cultural  picture  gallery  contains 
delineations  of  all  distinguishable  cultures.  It  would  then 
embrace  separate  pictures  of  the  successive  cultures  of  the 
same  people.  Aesthetic  contemplation  might  rest  content 
with  apperceiving  the  picture  of  Japan  in  looo  A.D.  and 
the  picture  of  Japan  in  1900  as  representing  two  disparate 
embodiments  of  cultural  ideals  as  independent  of  each  other 
as  either  is  of  the  Italian  Renaissance.  But  that  could  not 
possibly  be  the  attitude  of  the  scientific  student.  To  him 
the  fact  that  one  culture  has  grown  out  of  another,  that 
the  same  cvilture  has  varied  with  time,  is  an  all-important 
fact;  without  a  knowledge  of  the  time  relations  of  cultures 
that  are  merely  links  of  one  chain  he  would  feel  that  he  had 
missed  the  most  essential  part  of  reality.  To  put  it  tersely, 
whatever  else  the  investigator  of  civilization  may  do,  he 
must  be  an  historian. 

But  what  kind  of  an  historian  shall  the  ethnologist  be? 
Some  eminent  savants  whose  thinking  has  been  moulded  in 
experimental  laboratories  have  prescribed  with  much  em- 
phasis what  kind  of  history  is  worth  while.  Accustomed 
to  seeing  physical  phenomena  described  in  the  stenographic 
equations  of  the  calculus,  they  cannot  conceive  of  any 
branch  of  knowledge  as  worth  a  candle  unless  it  conforms 
to  the  pattern  of  celestial  mechanics.  Says  Professor  Pear- 
son in  TJic  Grammar  of  Science:  "History  can  never  be- 
come science,  can  never  be  anything  but  a  catalogue  of 
facts  rehearsed  in  more  or  less  pleasing  language  until 
these  facts  are  seen  to  fall  into  sequences  which  can  be 
briefly  resumed  in  scientific  formulae."  Applying  his  tenet 
specifically   to    civilization,    this    author   contends    that    in 


INTRODUCTION  5 

broad  outline  the  development  of  man  has  followed  the 
same  course  in  Europe,  in  Africa,  in  Australasia;  that  it 
can  be  briefly  resumed  in  terms  of  certain  basic  principles ; 
and  that  except  in  so  far  as  the  historian  undertakes  to  ascer- 
tain these,  his  efforts  are  hardly  worthy  of  serious  consider- 
ation. Similar  opinions  have  1)een  voiced  by  Professor  Ost- 
wald,  the  chemist,  and  Dr.  Driesch,  the  zoolo^^ist. 

The  attitude  just  defined  displays  a  surprising-  naivete. 
No  doubt  ethnologists  and  other  historians  would  be  greatly 
at  fault  if  they  failed  to  discover  the  laws  underlying  civili- 
zation, thus  giving  to  their  data  the  highest  degree  of  co- 
ordination to  which  they  are  amenable.  But  the  first  ques- 
tion is  whether  any  such  laws  exist  and  what  measure  of 
coordination  is  feasible.  The  existence  of  uniformity  in 
culture  history  cannot  be  assumed  simply  because  it  would 
be  convenient.  Even  in  physics  the  investigator  is  not 
always  fortunate  enough  tO'  reduce  his  phenomena  to  a 
Newtonian  formula.  He  must  theoretically  accept  the  fact 
that  water  has  its  point  of  maximum  density  at  four  degrees 
Centigrade,  as  men  at  large  have  liad  to  reckon  with  it 
practically,  without  waiting-  until  water  shall  assume  the 
properties  of  other  liquids.  So  the  ethnologist  cannot  per- 
mit his  task  to  be  pre-determined  for  him.  If  there  are  laws 
of  social  evolution,  he  must  assuredly  discover  them,  but 
whether  there  are  any  remains  to  be  seen,  and  his  scholarlv 
position  remains  unaffected  by  their  non-existence.  His 
duty  is  to  ascertain  the  course  civilization  actually  has  fol- 
lowed; and  the  kind  of  synthesis  he  gives  must  depend  on 
the  nature  of  his  facts.  To  strive  for  the  ideals  oif  another 
1:>ranch  of  knowledge  may  be  positively  pernicious,  for  it 
can  easily  lead  to  that  factitious  simplification  which  means 
falsification.  It  would  be  equivalent  to  insisting  that  water 
must  condense  in  freezing.  If  every  people  of  the  globe 
had  a  culture  history  wholly  different  from  that  of  ever}'- 
other,  the  historian's  task  would  still  be  to  record  these  sin- 
gularities and  make  the  best  of  them  ;  and  in  contributing  his 


6  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

share  to  the  sum  total  of  knowledge  he  would  suffer  no  loss 
in  scientific  dignity  from  the  unmalleability  of  his  material. 
Without,  therefore,  at  the  outset  renouncing  the  search 
for  laws  of  social  evolution,  we  will  emphatically  declare 
our  independence  of  that  pseudo-scientific  dogmatism  which 
insists  on  formulating  all  phenomena  after  the  fashion  that 
has  proved  serviceable  in  a  diminutive  corner  of  the  field 
of  human  knowledge.  Uninfluenced  by  any  bias  for  or 
against  historical  regularities,  we  shall  attempt  to  deter- 
mine what  are  the  facts  and  what  has  been  their  actual 
sequence. 

Here,  however,  the  ethnologist  encounters  an  obstacle 
from  which  the  historian  of  the  higher  civilizations  is  ex- 
empt. The  succession  of  events  in  primitive  communities  is 
rarely  a  matter  of  recorded  knowledge  except  for  the  most 
recent  period,  and  when  positive  information  extends  back 
to  several  centuries  ago  the  student  considers  himself  unusu- 
ally fortunate.  This  presents  a  real  difficulty  but  not  an  in- 
surmountable one.  For  in  addition  to  the  sparse  document- 
ary sources  the  ethnologist  possesses  a  stock  of  established 
ethnographic  and  linguistic  fact,  and  when  this  is  combined 
with  the  data  of  geographical  distribution  it  is  often  possible 
to  reconstruct  history  with  practical  certainty.  With  regard 
to  phenomena  of  social  organization  instances  will  be  sup- 
plied in  later  chapters ;  I  will  therefore  elucidate  the  method 
by  a  technological  illustration.  In  smelting  iron  the  natives 
of  Madagascar  employ  the  piston-bellows,  a  type  quite  dif- 
ferent from  the  bellows  of  the  Negro  blacksmiths  of  the 
neighboring  African  continent.  In  a  splendid  example  of 
historical  reconstruction  Tylor  pointed  out  that  the  piston- 
bellows  occurs  also  in  Sumatra,  in  other  parts  of  the  Malay 
Archipelago,  and  the  adjacent  portion  of  the  Asiatic  main- 
land; and  that  anthropologically  and  linguistically  the 
Malagasy  of  Madagascar  are  members  of  the  Malay  family. 
Hence  the  piston-bellows  is  undoubtedly  a  Malay  invention, 
which  was  carried  by  the  Malays  to  various  regions  in  the 


INTRODUCTION  7 

course  of  their  migrations.  By  thus  combining  general 
anthropological  knowledge  with  knowledge  of  the  distri- 
bution of  a  trait  Tylor  succeeded  in  establishing  the 
history  of  a  mechanical  contrivance  beyond  any  reasonable 
doubt. 

In  the  historical  reconstruction  of  culture  the  phenomena 
of  distribution  play,  indeed,  an  extraordinary  part.  If  a 
trait  occurs  everywhere,  it  might  veritably  be  the  product 
of  some  universally  operative  social  law.  If  it  is  found  in 
a  restricted  number  of  cases,  it  may  still  have  evolved 
through  some  such  instrumentality  acting  under  specific 
conditions  that  would  then  remain  to  be  determined  by 
analysis  of  the  cultures  in  which  the  feature  is  embedded. 
On  the  other  hand,  as  in  the  instance  of  the  Malagasy  bel- 
lows, there  may  be  no  law  involved  but  a  question  of  genetic 
relationship.  Finally,  the  sharers  of  a  cultural  trait  may  be 
of  distinct  lineage  but  through  contact  and  borrowing  have 
come  to  hold  in  common  a  portion  of  their  cultures. 

Thus  the  data  as  to  distribution  demand  an  interpreta- 
tion, whether  in  terms  of  some  causal  factor,  or  of  tribal 
affinity  or  international  intercourse ;  and  the  answer  elicited 
with  the  aid  of  extraneous  ethnological  information  is  neces- 
sarily cast  in  historical  form.  If  we  were  tracing  the  history 
of  ironwork,  we  should  assign  to  the  Malay  bellows  a  rela- 
tively late  date  because  it  is  a  specialized  form  evolved  in 
a  region  of  Asia  remote  from  the  ancient  centers  of  metal- 
lurgy; and  we  should  regard  the  Malagasy  bellows  as  a 
relatively  recent  importation  because  Madagascar  represents 
the  farthest  outpost  of  Malay  civilization. 

Since,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  cultural  resemblances  abound 
between  peoples  of  diverse  stock,  their  interpretation  com- 
monly narrows  to  a  choice  between  two  alternatives.  Either 
they  are  due  to  like  causes,  whether  these  can  be  determined 
or  not ;  or  they  are  the  result  of  borrowing.  A  predilection 
for  one  or  the  other  explanation  has  lain  at  the  bottom  of 
much  ethnological  discussion  in  the  past;  and  at  present 


8  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

influential  schools  both  in  England  and  in  continental 
Europe  clamorously  insist  that  all  cultural  parallels  are  due 
to  diffusion  from  a  single  center.  It  is  inevitable  to  envisage 
this  moot-problem  at  the  start,  since  uncompromising  cham- 
pionship of  either  alternative  has  far-reaching  practical 
consequences.  For  if  every  parallel  is  due  to  borrowing, 
then  sociological  laws,  which  can  be  inferred  only  from  in- 
dependently developing  likenesses,  are  barred.  Then  the 
history  of  religion  or  social  life  or  technology  consists  ex- 
clusively in  a  statement  of  the  place  of  origin  of  beliefs, 
customs  and  implements,  and  a  recital  of  their  travels  to 
different  parts  of  the  globe.  On  the  other  hand,  if  borrow- 
ing covers  only  part  of  the  observed  parallels,  an  explanation 
from  like  causes  becomes  at  least  the  ideal  goal  in  an  inves- 
tigation of  the  remainder.  It  is  therefore  proper  to  justify 
in  the  beginning  whatever  position  one  is  inclined  to  take 
in  the  conflict  between  the  rival  theories  of  diffusion  and 
independent  evolution. 

The  great  strength  of  the  diffusionist  theory  lies  in  the 
abundance  of  evidence  that  transmission  has  played  an  enor- 
mous part  in  the  growth  of  cultures.  This  is  often  not 
merely  a  matter  of  inference  but  of  recorded  observation, 
as  in  the  influence  of  Egyptian  on  Greek,  or  of  Arabian 
on  mediaeval  European  civilization.  To  this  vast  body 
of  testimony  must  be  added  numerous  examples  of  borrow- 
ing established  by  inference  but  in  a  manner  that  admits  of 
no  doubt.  Whenever  a  well-defined  trait  is  distributed  over 
a  continuous  area,  the  conclusion  can  hardly  be  avoided  that 
it  has  developed  in  one  spot  within  that  area  and  has  thence 
traveled  to  its  confines.  Often  that  conclusion  is  corrobo- 
rated by  a  quantitative  test :  the  feature  in  question  is  found 
in  a  state  of  high  elaboration  about  the  center  of  origin  and 
dwindles  towards  the  periphery.  Thus,  Professor  Boas  has 
demonstrated  with  great  elegance  that  the  Raven  cycle  of 
Canadian  mythology  originated  about  the  northern  part  of 
British  Columbia  and   thence  traveled   southwards.     The 


INTRODUCTION  9 

farther  one  proceeds  from  the  point  of  origin  the  smaller  is 
the  degree  of  elaboration  of  the  cycle  until  it  finally  tapers 
away.  This  combination  of  legendary  adventures  could 
not  be  confined  to  a  narrow  coastal  strip  if  it  were  the  prod- 
uct of  some  law  of  myth-making ;  and  there  would  not  be 
noticeable  that  progressive  diminution  of  complexity  if  we 
were  not  dealing  with  a  case  of  successive  transmission  to 
districts  farther  and  farther  removed  from  the  fountain- 
head. 

Diffusion  must  accordingly  be  hailed  as  a  vera  causa. 
But  is  it  the  only  one?  What  shall  we  say  when  like  traits 
crop  up  in  widely  severed  regions  of  which  the  populations 
are  neither  racially  related  nor  have  ever  been  in  contact  so 
far  as  is  known  ?  In  that  contingency  the  diffusionist  must 
have  recourse  to  the  auxiliary  hypothesis  that  contact  at 
one  time  existed ;  and  he  does  so  because  of  his  conviction 
that  every  element  of  culture  is  ultimately  due  to  so  extraor- 
dinary a  confluence  of  circumstances  that  the  conditions  for 
a  second  invention  can  never  recur.  This  is  the  basic  tenet 
of  the  difTusionist  creed  that  we  must  face. 

It  may  at  once  be  admitted  that  some  of  the  arguments 
leveled  at  this  position  in  the  past  have  not  been  especially 
fortunate.  Thus,  the  duplication  of  scientific  discoveries 
has  been  cited  to  prove  that  the  same  feature  may  develop 
independently.  Yet  in  general  this  argument  lacks  cogency. 
A  careful  historical  examination  usually  shows  that  the  co- 
discoverers  both  borrowed  largely  from  the  same  cultural 
stock,  as  did  Newton  and  Leibnitz  in  the  discovery  of  the 
calculus.  Such  a  case,  then,  cannot  be  likened  to  the  inde- 
pendent creation  of  cultural  elements  in  completely  sepa- 
rated areas.  Further,  when  modern  scientists  duplicate 
each  other's  results  they  are  not  merely  building  on  the 
same  foundation  but  are  trained  workers  who  consciously 
seek  to  add  definite  stones  to  the  structure.  This  deliberate 
striving  on  the  basis  of  special  training  is  a  motive  that  must 
be  wholly  banished  in  considering  the  ruder  civilizations, 


10  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

and  the  likelihood  of  a  repeated  invention  is  proportionately 
lessened. 

The  weakness  of  the  diffusionist  doctrine  in  its  extreme 
form  lies  in  its  lack  of  discrimination.  Few  would  deny; 
that  a  highly  complex  invention  could  not  readily  be  made 
several  times,  but  when  this  principle  is  extended  to  the 
simplest  devices  and  conceptions  it  flies  in  the  face  of  proba- 
bility. It  is  true  that  man  suffers  from  poverty  of  inven- 
tiveness and  ever  prefers  to  follow  the  path  of  lesser 
resistance  by  borrowing,  but  his  failing  is  not  so  great  as  is 
contended.  If  it  were,  that  admirable  adaptation  to  environ- 
ment which  we  occasionally  note  in  widely  separated  areas 
could  never  have  taken  place.  The  Micronesians  would  not 
have  learned  to  substitute  the  shell  of  the  giant  clam  for 
the  stone  no  longer  available  on  their  islands  for  axe  blades ; 
the  Andaman  Islanders  and  South  American  natives  would 
never  have  learned  to  stupefy  fish  with  poisonous  plants; 
nor  would  any  of  a  legion  of  ingenious  industrial  processes 
of  strictly  limited  range  have  been  achieved.  Must  we 
assume  that  the  Plains  Indian  who  was  able  to  perfect  a 
highly  complex  embroidery  technique  in  porcupine  quills 
was  incapable  of  discovering  for  himself  that  buffalo  dung 
could  be  used  in  fire-making  and  had  to  learn  it  from  some 
alien  source?  The  Hidatsa  Indians  of  North  Dakota  still 
cross  the  Missouri  in  boats  resembling  the  Welsh  coracle, 
an  umbrella-shaped  frame  being  covered  with  a  hide.  Must 
we  countenance  the  assumption  that  a  connection  once 
existed  that  has  merely  been  obliterated  in  course  of  time? 
We  shall  certainly  not  yield  to  that  view  if  among  neigh- 
boring tribes  there  turns  up  the  prototype  of  the  Hidatsa 
bull-boat, — an  improvised  raft  of  tent  skins  supported  by 
cross-pieces  of  wood  and  proving  the  autochthonous  inven- 
tion of  the  boat.  Again,  there  is  the  case  of  the  Australians 
and  the  Tierra  del  Fuegians,  both  of  whom  readily  noted  on 
becoming  acquainted  with  glass  that  this  material  offered 
a  good  substitute  for  stone  in  the  manufacture  of  certain 


INTRODUCTION  ii 

implements.  Thus  a  fairly  long  catalogue  might  be  made 
of  simple  ideas  that  are  either  positively  known  to  have 
been  conceived  more  than  once  or  that  at  least  in  all  proba- 
bility originated  independently  in  two  or  more  places.  In- 
deed, there  is  not  lacking  evidence  that  even  more  abstruse 
notions  have  in  rare  instances  been  re-invented.  None  is 
more  remarkable  than  the  occurrence  of  the  zero  figure  in 
the  notation  of  the  Maya  of  Yucatan,  an  achievement  not 
equaled  by  the  Greeks  or  Romans  and  duplicating  that  of 
the  Hindu  without  the  least  possibility  of  mutual  influence. 
However,  the  illustrations  cited  apply  only  to  a  limited 
section  of  the  cultural  domain,  that  in  which  mechanical  or 
theoretical  problems  are  solved  by  intellectual  means.  The 
religious,  sociological  and  aesthetic  aspects  of  culture  are 
founded  in  response  to  totally  different  motives.  It  is  con- 
ceivable that  in  these,  where  there  is  greater  freedom  from 
rational  control,  where  in  other  words  the  analogical  faculty 
functions  in  unrestrained  vigor,  the  chance  for  independent 
evolution  is  lessened  or  annulled.  Indeed,  some  observers 
would  sooner  admit  that  the  most  important  inventions  of 
mechanical  ingenuity  could  have  a  multiple  origin  than  that 
any  human  mind  could  independently  have  retraced  the 
tortuous  path  that  has  led  to  some  grotesque  mythological 
conception.  Nevertheless  the  non-rationalistic  departments 
of  culture  are  not  lacking  in  examples  of  the  independent 
origin  of  similar  features.  A  single  illustration  will  suffice. 
No  worse  affront  can  be  hurled  in  the  teeth  of  a  Kurnai 
Australian  than  to  call  him  an  orphan ;  and  the  same  is  true 
of  the  Crow  Indian  in  Montana.  That  so  harmless  a  term 
should  be  resented  as  the  most  offensive  imprecation  seem? 
strange,  but  there  is  an  explanation  for  it.  Among  the 
ruder  peoples  influence  is  often  directly  dependent  on  the 
greater  or  lesser  number  of  faithful  relatives.  The  kinless 
orphan  is  consequently  damned  to  social  impotence  and 
considering  aboriginal  vanity  it  is  natural  that  the  vocabu- 
lary of  vituperation  should  contain  no  more  degrading  epi- 


12  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

thet.  It  is  therefore  not  only  certain  that  neither  the  Kurnai 
borrowed  from  the  Crow  nor  vice  versa,  but  the  reason  for 
the  observed  parallel  is  clear  from  known  facts  of  primitive 
life. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  multiply  instances  of  this  type 
because  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  relevant  data  is  furnished 
by  a  single  department  of  culture,  to  wit,  language.  Lin- 
guistic processes  belong  to  the  same  category  psychologically 
as  the  processes  by  which  the  non-intellectualistic  part  of 
culture  has  come  into  being,  and  what  applies  to  them  has 
accordingly  a  wider  application.  English  has  come  to  ap- 
proach Chinese  in  the  simplicity  of  its  grammar  not  because 
of  the  direct  influence  exerted  by  China  on  the  speech  of 
the  British  Isles  but  from  internal  causes.  If  the  Shosho- 
nean  Indian  languages  of  the  Great  Basin  of  North  America 
have  a  dual  number  it  is  not  because  they  have  borrowed 
the  notion  from  the  ancient  Greeks  but  because  it  is  a  notion 
that  can  and  does  arise  independently.  In  this  manner  a 
host  of  instances  can  be  enumerated  showing  that  the  same 
mode  of  classifying  or  describing  phenomena  has  been 
evolved  in  languages  utterly  unrelated  in  origin  and  wholly 
disconnected  in  point  of  contact.  If  that  is  so,  even  though 
the  reason  for  the  resemblances  be  forever  hidden  from  our 
ken,  the  fact  is  established  that  reasoning  and  classification 
by  analogy  can  produce  analogous  results.  Accordingly  it 
is  sheer  dogmatism  to  decree  that  such  results  could  not 
occur  in  the  case  of  customs  or  myths. 

In  short,  there  is  no  reason  for  excluding  the  possibility 
of  independent  development  in  the  study  of  social  organiza- 
tion. I  will  accordingly  treat  each  case  of  resemblance  on 
its  merits  and  shall  not  strike  the  balance  between  the  rival 
theories  before  the  close  of  my  investigation. 

In  the  foregoing  remarks  lies  the  reason  for  the  impor- 
tant place  assigned  to  matters  of  distribution  in  the  subse- 
quent chapters.  From  the  range  of  a  phenomenon  we  know 
at  once  whether  it  can  even  tentatively  rank  as  a  necessary 


INTRODUCTION  13 

consequence  of  human  gregariousness,  while  a  comparison 
of  linked  traits  may  reveal  the  conditions  favoring  its 
appearance.  The  distribution  of  an  institution  may  demon- 
strate that  it  has  been  diffused,  and  when  coupled  with  other 
information  it  may  aid  in  a  fairly  complete  reconstruction 
of  historical  processes.  When  we  know  only  the  range  of 
a  usage,  we  may  not  yet  know  very  much,  but  we  have  at 
least  a  point  of  departure  for  amplifying  our  information. 
When  we  do  not  know  the  distribution  of  a  phenomenon 
with  unrecorded  history,  we  know  nothing  that  is  theoreti- 
cally significant.  . 

The  knowledge  of  primitive  society  has  an  educational 
value  that  should  recommend  its  study  even  to  those  who  are 
not  primarily  interested  in  the  processes  of  culture  history. 
All  of  us  are  born  into  a  set  of  traditional  institutions  and 
social  conventions  that  are  accepted  not  only  as  natural  but 
as  the  only  conceivable  response  to  social  needs.  Departures 
from  our  standards  in  foreigners  bear  in  our  biased  view 
the  stamp  of  inferiority.  Against  this  purblind  provincial- 
ism there  is  no  better  antidote  than  the  systematic  study  of 
alien  civilizations.  Acquaintance  with  adjustments  in  one 
society  after  another  that  rest  on  wholly  different  founda- 
tions from  those  with  which  we  are  familiar  enlarges  our 
notion  of  social  potentialities  as  the  conception  of  w-dimen- 
sional  space  enlarges  the  vision  of  the  non-Euclidean  geome- 
trician. We  see  our  received  set  of  opinions  and  customs 
as  merely  one  of  an  indefinite  number  of  possible  variants ; 
and  we  are  emboldened  to  hew  them  into  shape  in  accord- 
ance with  novel  aspirations. 


CHAPTER  II 

MARRIAGE 

IF  SOCIAL  organization  is  but  one  phase  of  culture  and 
can  be  understood  solely  in  connection  with  other  phases, 
a  corresponding  statement  holds  even  more  decidedly  for 
any  one  of  the  aspects  of  social  organization.  We  may  begin 
by  considering  the  primitive  family,  but  very  soon  we  find 
that  in  order  to  comprehend  its  phenomena  we  must  con- 
sider what  at  first  seem  quite  irrelevant  series  of  facts.  In 
parts  of  Oceania,  where  a  man  regularly  eats  and  sleeps  at 
his  club,  this  type  of  unit  affects  family  life  so  profoundly 
that  the  two  cannot  well  be  divorced  in  picturing  either. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  begin  with  clubs,  we  shall  very 
soon  be  engaged  in  a  discussion  of  property  concepts  be- 
cause membership  in  these  organizations  is  sometimes  equiv- 
alent to  the  holding  of  a  proprietary  title.  But  any  treat- 
ment of  property  involves  the  notions  of  kinship  that 
determine  inheritance  of  property.  And  so  forth.  In  short, 
these  several  topics  are  so  closely  interrelated  that  none  of 
them  can  be  treated  as  the  basic  one  from  which  all  others 
are  logically  deducible.  However  we  commence,  there  must 
be  constant  anticipation  and  constant  cross-referencing,  for 
by  the  sheer  necessities  of  exposition  we  are  driven  to  exam- 
ine fragment  after  fragment  of  an  organic  whole. 

This  being  so.  any  starting-point  will  do.  I  will  select  the 
family  as  the  first  social  unit  to  be  considered ;  and  will 
naturally  begin  by  describing  the  conditions  that  confront 
the  individual  who  desires  to  found  a  new  family, — the 
social  prohibitions  and  prescriptions  to  which  he  has  to  sub- 

14 


MARRIAGE  15 

mit  in  the  selection  of  a  mate  and  the  traditional  means  of 
acquiring  one. 

Marriage  Prohibitions 

In  every  part  of  the  world  there  are  restrictions  on  the 
choice  of  a  mate  based  on  propinquity  of  relationship. 
Those  who  transgress  the  rules  are  guilty  of  the  dread  crime 
of  incest.  Within  the  narrowest  family  circle  sexual  rela- 
tions are  universally  tabooed.  There  are  no  tribes  which 
countenance  the  mating  of  parent  and  child,  and  where 
brother-sister  unions  have  been  recorded  they  are  not  the 
result  of  primitiveness  but  of  excessive  sophistication.  That 
is,  in  communities  where  pride  of  descent  obtains  in  hyper- 
trophied  form,  as  in  ancient  Egypt  and  Peru,  the  sovereign 
may  find  no  one  of  sufficiently  high  rank  to  become  his 
mate  except  his  nearest  blood  kin.  Such  instances  are, 
however,  decidedly  rare  and  do  not  afifect  the  practices  of 
the  common  herd. 

It  is  not  the  function  of  the  ethnologist  but  of  the  biolo- 
gist and  psychologist  to  explain  why  man  has  so  deep-rooted 
a  horror  of  incest,  though  personally  I  accept  Hobhouse's 
view  that  the  sentiment  is  instinctive.  The  student  of  so- 
ciety merely  has  to  reckon  with  the  fact  that  the  dread  of 
incest  limits  the  biologically  possible  number  of  unions.  He 
must  further  register  the  different  ways  in  which  different 
communities  conceive  the  incest  rule.  For  while  parent 
and  child,  brother  and  sister,  are  universally  barred  from 
mating,  many  tribes  favor  and  all  but  prescribe  marriages 
between  certain  more  remote  kindred.  That  is  to  say,  while 
the  aversion  to  marriage  within  the  group  of  the  closest 
relatives  may  be  instinctive,  the  extension  of  that  sentiment 
beyond  that  restricted  circle  is  conventional,  some  tribes 
drawing  the  line  far  more  rigorously  than  others.  For 
example,  the  Blackfoot  of  Montana  not  only  discountenance 
the  marriage  of  cousins  but  look  askance  at  any  union 


i6  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

within  the  local  band  "because  there  is  always  a  suspicion 
that  some  close  blood  relationship  may  have  been  over- 
looked." The  Shuswap  and  Thompson  River  Indians  of 
British  Columbia  deprecate  unions  of  second  cousins,  the 
Nez  Perce  of  Idaho  even  those  of  third  cousins.  Accord- 
ing to  an  educated  member  of  the  Paviotso  of  Nevada  the 
most  remote  cousins  are  still  reckoned  by  her  people  as 
kindred,  and  consequently  matrimony  is  barred. 

This  repugnance  to  in-breeding  must  be  connected  with  a 
common  primitive  usage.  A  Paviotso,  e.g.,  addresses  all 
cousins,  regardless  of  degree,  as  his  brother  or  sister.  Now 
among  rude  peoples  there  is  a  great  deal  in  a  name  and 
from  calling  a  girl  sister  to  regarding  her  asi  a  sister  for 
matrimonial  purposes  is  but  a  step  owing  to  the  superstitious 
identification  of  things  bearing  the  same  appellation. 
Hence,  provided  a  tenth  cousin  be  called  by  the  same  term 
as  the  first,  the  incest  horror  will  be  naturally  extended  to 
her  as  well. 

There  are,  indeed,  far  more  startling  extensions  of  this 
sentiment.  Frequently  there  is  not  merely  a  rule  against 
the  marriage  of  actual  blood-kin  but  even  of  individuals 
between  whom  no  relationship  can  be  traced  and  who  are 
regarded  as  kin  simply  through  the  legal  fiction  that  fellow- 
members  of  a  certain  social  group  are  ultimately  descendants 
of  the  same  ancestor.  The  magical  potency  of  the  group 
name  doubtless  plays  a  large  part  here.  Thus  in  Australia 
a  man  of,  say,  the  Emu  group  in  one  tribe  would  not  mate 
with  an  Emu  woman  of  an  alien  tribe  a  hundred  miles 
away,  though  blood-kinship  is  absolutely  precluded  by  the 
conditions  of  the  case. 

The  rule  which  prescribes  that  an  individual  must  find 
a  mate  outside  of  his  own  group,  whether  that  group  be  the 
family,  the  village,  or  some  other  social  unit,  is  known  as 
exogamy.  The  contrary  rule  which  makes  it  compulsory 
for  a  man  to  mate  within  his  group  is  labeled  endogamy. 
Endogamy  flourishes  where  social  distinctions  have  come  to 


MARRIAGE  17 

be  matters  of  paramount  importance.  The  Hindu  caste 
system  is  the  stock  ilhistration,  European  aristocracy  sup- 
plies another.  At  a  lower  level  of  civilization  the  Tsimshian 
of  British  Columbia  frown  upon  the  marriage  of  a  chief's 
relatives  with  those  of  a  chief's  attendant  or  of  an  attend- 
ant's with  commoners.  It  is  only  the  notion  of  obligatory 
marriage  within  the  social  unit  not  the  de  facto  occurrence 
of  unions  within  the  group  that  constitutes  endogamy.  For 
example,  the  young  men  of  Kalamazoo  naturally  find  their 
wives  for  the  most  part  among  their  townswomen,  but 
there  is  nothing  to  prevent  them  from  seeking  a  bride  in 
Ottumwa  or  Przemysl.  It  is  only  where  there  is  lurking 
the  notion  of  a  prohibition  that  we  can  speak  of  an  en- 
dogamous  tendency, — say,  in  connection  with  the  feeling 
that  a  Catholic  ought  not  to  marry  a  Protestant. 

Exogamy  and  endogamy  are  not  mutually  exclusive  except 
with  regard  to  the  same  unit.  The  Toda  of  the  Nilgiri 
Hills  in  Southern  India  are  divided  into  two  groups,  the 
Tartharol  and  the  Teivaliol,  between  which  legal  matrimony 
is  prohibited.  But  each  is  subdivided  into  groups  which 
are  exogamous.  A  person  of  the  Pan  section  of  the  Tartha- 
rol may  not  choose  for  his  spouse  a  girl  of  Teivaliol  affilia- 
tion, but  must  seek  a  Tartharol  of  some  section  other  than 
his  own/ 

Means  of  Acquiring  a  Mate 

Generalizations  about  primitive  tribes  are  dangerous,  but 
few  exceptions  will  be  found  to  the  statement  that  matri- 
mony with  them  is  not  so  much  a  sacramental  as  a  civil 
institution.  It  differs,  however,  notably  from  modern  ar- 
rangements in  Caucasian  civilization  in  that  the  contract 
often  binds  not  individuals  but  families.  This  appears 
clearly  in  two  forms  of  matrimony  known  as  marriage  by 
exchange  and  marriage  by  purchase.  In  both  a  girl  is 
treated  as  an  asset  which  her  family  will  not  surrender 
without  receiving  adequate  compensation. 


i8  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Among  the  Kariera  of  Western  Australia  the  acquisition 
of  a  bride  is  complicated  by  certain  rules  of  preferential 
mating.  That  is,  a  man  is  not  only  forbidden  to  marry  his 
sister  and  certain  other  kinswomen,  but  is  practically  obliged 
to  mate  with  a  particular  type  of  cousin  or  some  more  re- 
mote relative  designated  by  the  same  term  (see  below, 
Preferential  Mating).  With  this  limitation  exchange  is 
commonly  practised.  A  man,  A,  having  one  or  more  sisters 
finds  a  man,  B,  standing  to  him  in  the  proper  cousin  relation- 
ship who  also  possesses  a  sister.  These  men  each  take  a 
sister  of  the  other  as  wife.  This  method  seems  to  have  a 
very  definite  distribution.  It  is  common  in  Australia  and 
the  Torres  Straits  Islands  but  rare  or  absent  even  in  the 
neighboring  region  of  Melanesia. 

Apart  from  such  exchange  of  sisters,  the  Kariera  elders 
arrange  marriages  of  the  orthodox  type  between  juvenile 
cousins.  The  death  of  one  of  them  may  effect  a  change 
but  the  new  arrangement  will  still  conform  to  the  matri- 
monial norm :  the  prospective  spouses  will  be  cousins  of  the 
prescribed  type,  though  perhaps  more  remotely  related.  In 
the  case  of  infant  betrothals  a  boy  grows  up  with  the  under- 
standing that  a  certain  man  is  his  probable  father-in-law 
and  as  such  is  entitled  to  occasional  presents  and  services. 
But  since  his  fiancee  may  die,  there  is  a  whole  group  of 
potential  fathers-in-law  who  are  entitled  to  similar  con- 
sideration, though  in  lesser  degree ;  these  attentions  may  be 
conceived  as  a  form  of  compensation  equivalent  to  the  pur- 
chase form  of  other  areas.  When  a  girl  attains  the  proper 
age,  she  is  simply  handed  over  to  the  bridegroom.  That 
we  are  verily  dealing  with  a  family  compact  appears  clearly 
from  certain  additional  elements  of  Kariera  matrimonial 
life.  "Where  there  are  several  sisters  in  a  family  they  are 
all  regarded  as  the  wives  of  the  man  who  marries  the  eldest 
of  them."  This  is  a  widespread  custom  known  as  the 
sororatc.  On  the  other  hand,  a  man's  wives  are  automatic- 
ally inherited  by  his  younger  brother  or  a  kinsman  ranking 


MARRIAGE  19 

as  such,  a  usage  technically  referred  to  as  the  leznrate. 
Finally,  a  man  may  waive  his  preemptive  claim  on  his  wife's 
younger  sister  in  favor  of  his  younger  brother. 

Compared  with  exchange,  purchase  has  an  exceedingly 
wide  distribution.  It  is,  however,  important  to  distinguish 
several  varieties  of  purchase  which  are  neither  psychologi- 
cally nor  legally  equivalent.  In  some  regions  woman  is  to 
all  intents  and  purposes  a  transferable  and  inheritable  species 
of  chattel ;  in  others,  there  will  be  found  only  the  appearance 
of  purchase,  since  the  price  offered  is  balanced  or  even  out- 
weighed by  an  equivalent  gift  or  dowry. 

To  begin  with  purchase  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  term. 
Among  the  Kirgiz,  a  Turkish  tribe  of  southwestern  Siberia, 
a  man  will  betroth  a  ten-year  old  son  to  a  girl  and  commence 
forthwith  to  amass  the  bride-price,  which  is  as  high  as 
81  head  of  cattle.  This  is  paid  in  instalments ;  only  when 
a  large  portion  has  been  conveyed  to  the  fiancee's  family 
may  the  young  man  visit  the  girl,  and  the  marriage  takes 
place  with  the  completed  payment.  Owing  to  the  high 
amount  exacted  by  the  bride's  family,  few  men  have  more 
than  one  wife  and  very  rarely  is  a  woman  divorced,  though 
under  the  Mohammedan  law  the  husband's  authority  would 
be  unrestricted.  Here  the  woman  is  quite  definitely  con- 
ceived as  her  spouse's  property  and  loses  contact  with  her 
own  family. 

With  the  Ho,  an  Ewe  tribe  in  the  interior  of  Togo,  West 
Africa,  there  is  a  series  of  payments  and  services  which 
establish  a  proprietary  title  to  the  wife,  but  there  is  no  com- 
plete severance  from  her  family  and  altogether  her  social 
status  is  distinctly  better  than  among  the  Kirgiz.  Here  the 
initial  arrangements  are  often  made  even  before  the  girl's 
birth :  a  man  who  likes  a  woman  is  wont  to  bespeak  the  next 
daughter  she  may  bear.  If  the  proposal  is  accepted,  the 
fiance  must  give  a  preliminary  present  to  the  prospective 
parents-in-law,  which  is  followed  by  monthly  gifts  of  cow- 
rie-shells to  the  infant  girl  and  horticultural  assistance  to 


20  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

her  parents,  together  with  a  variety  of  other  services.  At 
puberty  the  young  woman  is  turned  over  to  the  bridegroom, 
but  if  the  compensation  offered  by  him  appears  inadequate 
the  parents  will  previously  annul  the  contract  by  sending 
him  a  stipulated  amount  of  cowrie  money.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  in  a  certain  sense  the  Ho  woman  is  a  form 
of  property;  she  may  serve  as  a  pawn  in  a  creditor's  custody 
and  is  inherited  by  her  husband's  brothers  while  herself 
barred  from  inheriting  any  of  his  possessions.  Neverthe- 
less in  practice  the  theoretical  rigor  of  these  conceptions  is 
considerably  weakened.  Women  may  exercise  a  great  deal 
of  influence  on  their  husbands,  have  been  known  to  leave 
them  in  joint  rebellion,  and  are  entitled  to  compensation  for 
supplying  their  spouses  with  cotton. 

The  erroneous  notions  that  might  be  suggested  by  the 
catchword  'purchase'  are  clearly  exposed  by  a  consideration 
of  the  Kai,  a  Papuan  people  in  New  Guinea.  Here  the 
bride-price,  consisting  of  a  boar's  tusk,  a  hog  and  other 
valuables,  is  paid  to  the  girl's  maternal  uncles  and  brothers, 
while  the  father  is  merely  entitled  to  a  certain  amount  of 
work.  In  a  sense  the  husband  again  becomes  the  owner  of 
his  wife  through  the  transaction :  she  is  inherited  by  his 
brothers  or  kinsmen,  is  punishable  by  her  husband  for  adul- 
tery, and  in  cases  of  elopement  her  loss  is  compensated  by 
a  return  of  the  bride-price,  P)Ut  while  juridically  the  wife 
is  nil,  her  person  has  not  been  surrendered  absolutely  by  her 
kin.  If  the  man  breaks  his  wife's  pottery,  he  must  in- 
demnify her  family;  he  is  as  little  entitled  to  inherit  her 
property  as  she  is  to  appropriate  his  legacy ;  and  the  chil- 
dren belong  definitely  to  her  and  her  kin.  In  short,  what 
the  man  acquires  by  purchase  is  an  exclusively  sexual  pre- 
rogative;  even  in  return  for  his  wife's  economic  services  he 
is  obliged  to  do  an  equivalent  amount  of  work  on  behalf 
of  the  common  household. 

In  contrast  to  Kai  custom  stands  the  lohola  usage  of 
the  Thonga  of  South  Africa.     To  be  sure,  here  too  the 


MARRIAGE  21 

suitor  and  his  family  acquire  a  woman  through  offering 
a  stipulated  bride-price  (lobola), — cattle  or  hoes;  and  the 
widow  is  as  a  matter  of  course  inherited  by  a  member  of 
her  husband's  family, — one  of  his  younger  brothers,  or 
sister's  sons,  or  sons  by  another  wife.  Indeed,  the  property 
concept  is  consistently  applied  to  a  still  greater  extent. 
When  a  man  has  surrendered  the  customary  bride-price,  his 
wife's  family  forthwith  use  it  to  purchase  a  wife  for  an 
adult  son.  If,  now,  the  first  man's  wife  elopes,  her  husband 
may  claim  the  lobola;  since  it  has  already  been  expended  in 
buying  a  wife  for  his  brother-in-law,  the  eloper's  insolvent 
kinsfolk  may  be  driven  to  the  point  of  surrendering  this 
newly  bought  woman  to  her  fugitive  sister-in-law's  husband. 
So  far  it  is  simply  a  case  of  rigorously  applying  the  pur- 
chase principle.  But  in  one  respect  there  is  a  fundamental 
divergence  from  Kai  practice :  the  lobola  is  most  emphati- 
cally understood  to  pay  not  only  for  the  woman  but  for  all 
her  issue,  so  that  a  husband  may  claim  restoration  of  the 
bride-price  if  his  wife  dies  childless,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  offspring  of  a  woman  belong  to  her  family  pro- 
vided the  lobola  remains  unpaid. 

Again  a  different  conception  prevailed  among  the  Hidatsa 
of  North  Dakota.  Purchase  was  here  the  most  honorable 
form  of  marriage  for  the  woman,  and  only  girls  never  pre- 
viously married  were  bought.  But  though  some  proprietary 
right  was  acknowledged,  as  evidenced  by  the  levirate  rule, 
its  development  was  relatively  weak.  The  husband  had 
no  absolute  power  over  either  his  wife  or  the  children. 
He  was  indeed  entitled  to  wed  his  wife's  younger  sisters 
but  on  the  other  hand  he  frequently  figured  in  the  begin- 
ning of  his  matrimonial  life  as  a  sort  of  servant  in  the 
father-in-law's  household.  It  is  also  important  to  note  that 
the  purchase  was  often  no  more  than  an  exchange  of  gifts, 
the  bridegroom's  being  sometimes  exceeded  in  value  by  the 
return  presents  received  from  the  bride's  kin. 

This  equivalence  of  dowry  and  bride-price  is  by  no  means 


22  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

rare  in  North  America.  It  was  characteristic  of  the  matri- 
monial unions  of  the  THngit  of  southern  Alaska.  Obviously 
in  such  cases  we  can  hardly  continue  to  speak  of  purchase. 
The  legal  conceptions  bound  up  with  such  usages  are  inter- 
esting. With  the  Tlingit  the  children  always  belonged  to 
the  mother's  family  in  case  of  divorce.  If  the  husband 
separated  from  his  wife  on  account  of  sheer  incompati- 
bility, he  was  obliged  to  restore  the  dowry  to  her  parents, 
who  retained  his  gifts.  If,  however,  the  cause  was  adultery 
on  the  woman's  part,  he  was  entitled  to  have  his  presents 
returned  to  him  and  kept  the  dowry. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  great  variability  of 
the  purchase  concept  and  the  range  of  juristic  notions  as- 
sociated with  it  in  different  regions.  Before  leaving  the 
category  of  cases  in  which  compensation  of  some  sort  is 
offered  for  the  wife  it  is  well  to  point  out  that  the  notion 
of  service  for  a  bride,  which  is  frequently  merely  a  substi- 
tute for  purchase  or  supplementary  to  it,  may  display  a 
quite  different  significance.  Thus,  with  the  Koryak  of 
northeastern  Siberia  service  is  the  established  method  of 
winning  a  bride.  Even  when  the  son-in-law  settles  with 
the  wife's  parents,  so  that  they  not  merely  avoid  losing  the 
daughter's  assistance  but  gain  her  husband's  permanent 
support,  the  rule  is  not  relaxed.  The  suitor  not  only  must 
accomplish  useful  work,  but  must  endure  privation  and 
humiliating  treatment;  his  service  period  is  a  test  of  char- 
acter and  skill  rather  than  the  equivalent  of  a  bride-price. 

Suitors'  trials,  indeed,  play  a  very  prominent  part  in 
aboriginal  folk-tales,  which  delight  in  depicting  the  hero  as 
overcoming  the  most  extraordinary  obstacles.  Reality  is 
less  romantic,  but  definite  tests  are  not  wanting.  Thus, 
among  the  Arawak  of  British  Guiana  the  prospective  hus- 
band was  obliged  to  prove  his  marksmanship  by  shooting 
an  arrow  into  a  woodpecker's  nest  from  a  moving  boat  and 
to  give  further  demonstration  of  his  mettle  by  clearing  a 
field  and  filling  a  large  number  of  crab  baskets  within  a 


MARRIAGE  23 

specified  span  of  time.  The  idea  at  the  bottom  of  such 
tasks  is  of  course  to  make  sure  that  the  young  man  is  ca- 
pable of  providing  for  a  family.  This  motive  occurs  as  a 
constant  refrain  in  the  utterances  of  North  American  In- 
dians, v^here  the  skilful  hunter  figures  as  the  ideal  son- 
in-law. 

Common  as  is  the  notion  that  some  sort  of  compensation 
must  be  yielded  in  return  for  the  bride,  it  is  by  no  means 
universal.  Even  in  some  of  the  cases  cited  above  a  closer 
examination  has  shown  that  the  form  of  rendering  a  con- 
sideration may  harbor  substantially  different  conceptions. 
There  can  be  no  real  purchase  where  the  dowry  equals  the 
bridegroom's  gifts;  nor  where  the  present  offered  dwindles, 
as  among  the  Indians  of  the  northwest  Amazons  country, 
to  a  pot  of  tobacco  and  another  of  coca.  A  number  of 
forms  of  marriage  must  be  mentioned,  however,  which  lack 
even  the  semblance  of  compensation. 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  marriage  by  capture.  Though 
it  plays  an  exaggerated  role  in  the  earlier  speculative  litera- 
ture of  the  subject,  it  is  really  of  distinctly  minor  impor- 
tance. For  example,  the  warlike  Plains  Indians  frequently 
enough  captured  women  of  hostile  tribes  and  took  them  to 
wife;  but  the  vastly  preponderating  number  of  alliances  for 
obvious  reasons  took  place  within  the  tribe.  There,  how- 
ever, the  appropriation  of  a  woman  by  force  was  not  so 
simple  a  matter  because  it  might  at  once  precipitate  a  fam- 
ily feud.  It  is  true  that  among  the  Northern  Athabaskans 
of  the  Mackenzie  River  region  there  were  wrestling-matches 
between  rival  claimants,  the  stronger  being  entitled  to  carry 
off  a  woman  even  though  she  had  already  been  married ; 
and  similar  practices  are  reported  from  the  Eskimo  on  the 
west  coast  of  Hudson  Bay.  But,  on  the  whole,  social  sanc- 
tion of  the  rights  of  brute  force  within  the  community  is 
granted  by  very  few  peoples.  To  be  sure,  there  occurs  in 
a  fair  number  of  cases  a  dramatization  of  bride  capture. 
Thus  among  the  Koryak  the  bride,  often  assisted  by  her 


24  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

friends,  resists  the  groom's  advances  and  he  may  receive  a 
sound  thrashing  before  reducing  her  to  submission.  Such 
usages  were  interpreted  by  an  older  school  of  anthropologists 
as  survivals  of  a  condition  in  which  marriages  were  nor- 
mally contracted  by  capture.  But  it  is  far  simpler  and  less 
hypothetical  to  connect  it  with  other  incidents  of  Koryak 
pre-matrimonial  experiences  and  to  recognize  in  the  symbolic 
capture  merely  the  final  test  of  the  suitor's  adroitness  and 
prowess.  Elsewhere  we  may  plausibly  assume  with  Dr. 
Hobhouse  that  the  dramatic  performance  of  capture  sym- 
bolizes appropriation  and  "is  not  necessarily  a  survival  of 
something  more  real,  but  may  be  rather  a  legal  expression 
of  the  character  of  the  act  performed." 

Secondly,  there  are  those  cases  in  which  the  young  couple, 
defying  it  may  be  the  wishes  of  elders  or  the  dictates  of 
convention,  marry  by  mutual  consent,  possibly  overcoming 
obstacles  through  elopement.  Instances  of  this  type  are 
reported  from  everywhere  but  the  implications  of  such  love 
matches  vary  enormously.  In  modern  America  marriages 
based  on  mutual  love  represent  theoretically  the  highest  type, 
but  this  notoriously  does  not  hold  for  the  upper  strata  of 
European  society.  There,  as  among  the  Kai,  legal  wedlock 
and  the  gratification  of  the  sexual  instinct  are  two  distinct 
things.  The  latter  is  abundantly  satisfied  apart  from  mar- 
riage ;  marriage  is  largely  dissociated  from  love  in  its 
higher  and  lower  forms  and  is  based  on  considerations  of 
an  economic,  social,  or  political  character.  The  type  of 
union  that  seems  highest  to  us  may  thus  be  regarded  by 
others  perhaps  as  unequivocally  inferior  in  social  value. 
Among  the  Crow  Indians  of  Montana  there  was  abundant 
opportunity  for  philandering  at  picnicking  excursions  or 
similar  occasions,  and  some  of  the  attachments  thus  formed 
ripened  into  more  than  temporary  unions.  Yet  in  tribal 
estimation  such  marriages  were  not  to  be  compared  with 
marriages  by  purchase,  which  ranked  as  more  honorable 
and  are  said  to  have  had   far  greater  likelihood  of  per- 


MARRIAGE  25 

manence.  This  doubtless  was  due  to  the  fact  that  a  man 
would  only  buy  a  woman  or  girl  with  an  established  repu- 
tation for  chastity.  The  matrimonial  history  of  a  typical 
Crow  might  thus  consist  of  several  love  matches  and  a  single 
orthodox  marriage  by  purchase,  which  through  the  sororate 
often  became  polygamous.  A  woman  did  not  become  an 
outcast  by  associating  herself  with  a  man  from  inclination : 
she  merely  fell  short  of  ideal  perfection.  Indeed,  she  would 
not  even  rouse  unfavorable  comment  unless  she  frequently 
changed  mates.  A  handsome  or  brave  man  was  expected  to 
have  an  indefinite  number  of  love  affairs,  quite  apart  from 
anything  resembling  marital  alliances.  The  matter  might 
be  formulated  thus,  that  the  more  permanent  love  matches 
acquired  a  status  superior  to  mere  philandering  or  con- 
cubinage but  never  attained  the  prestige  of  marriage  by 
purchase. 

The  Crow  data  suggest  a  principle  of  wider  application. 
Generally  there  is  more  than  one  way  of  acquiring  a  per- 
manent mate,  though  the  several  methods  may  be  graded 
differently  in  the  scale  of  public  approbation.  A  Crow  may 
get  a  wife  by  buying  one  or  by  inheriting  his  brother's 
widow,  he  may  enter  an  alliance  of  love  without  payment 
or  legitimately  acquire  additional  spouses  through  the  soro- 
rate after  purchasing  the  eldest  daughter  in  the  family,  or 
capture  an  alien  woman  in  an  attack  on  a  Dakota  camp,  or 
under  special  conditions  legitimately  take  away  a  tribes- 
man's wife  if  she  has  previously  been  his  mistress.  In  other 
regions  the  particular  means  may  differ  but  multiplicity  is 
fairly  common.  This  fact  renders  a  numerical  estimate  of 
the  several  methods  of  arranging  marriage  in  the  world 
peculiarly  difficult,  and  the  task  is  rendered  even  more  oner- 
ous by  the  different  connotations  of  such  terms  as  purchase 
or  service.  Shall  we  reckon  the  Crow  as  a  bride-buying 
people  because  purchase  is  the  ideal  mode,  even  though  pos- 
sibly sixty  per  cent  of  all  the  stable  unions  may  be  non- 
conformist?   Or  is  it  permissible  to  treat  Kirgiz,  Kai,  and 


26  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Hidatsa  as  wife-purchasers  without  discrimination?  Pro- 
fessor Hobhouse  has  attempted  a  census  of  the  bride-buying 
peoples,  giving  the  percentage  of  pastoral,  agricultural  and 
hunting  peoples  who  render  compensation  for  their  wives. 
But  though  every  effort  to  enhance  the  precision  of  sociologi- 
cal statements  must  be  hailed  with  pleasure,  in  the  present 
instance  it  seems  foredoomed  to  failure  because  of  the 
variability  of  matrimonial  arrangements  in  the  same  tribe 
and  because  of  the  varying  significance  of  purchase.^ 

Preferential  Mating 

While  primitive  society  frequently  interdicts  unions  which 
to  us  seem  unobjectionable,  it  often  favors  and  even  pre- 
scribes the  marriage  of  individuals  in  a  manner  foreign  to 
modern  Caucasian  usage.  Several  instances  have  already 
been  encountered, — a  type  of  cousin  marriage,  the  levirate, 
and  the  sororate. 

When  primitive  peoples  favor  cousin  marriage,  this  is 
nearly  always  limited  to  those  relatives  technically  known  as 
cross-cousins,  while  parallel  or  identical  cousins  are  barred 
from  intermarrying  by  the  incest  rule.  The  children  of  a 
man  and  those  of  his  brother  are  one  another's  parallel  or 
identical  cousins ;  so  are  the  children  of  a  woman  and  those 
of  her  sister.  On  the  other  hand,  the  children  of  a  man  are 
cross-cousins  of  his  sister's  children,  the  relationship  being 
reciprocal.  Everyday  speech  lacks  a  generic  word  to  include 
brother  and  sister,  but  the  ethnologist  may  conveniently  bor- 
row the  biologist's  term  siblings,  which  designates  descend- 
ants of  the  same  parent  regardless  of  their  sex.  With  the 
aid  of  this  term  we  may  put  the  matter  thus :  the  children  of 
siblings  of  the  same  sex  are  parallel  cousins  and  are  usually 
themselves  called  siblings  in  primitive  languages;  the  chil- 
dren of  siblings  of  unlike  sex  are  cross-cousins  and  are 
generally  designated  by  a  term  expressing  greater  remote- 
ness of  kinship.     Cross-cousin  marriage  may  theoretically 


MARRIAGE  27 

be  of  two  types:  a  man  may  marry  either  the  daughter  of 
a  mother's  brother  or  of  a  father's  sister.  Practically  these 
two  forms  may  coincide  through  the  fact  that  the  mother's 
brother  by  tribal  custom  usually  espouses  the  father's  sister. 
So  far  as  this  is  not  the  case,  marriage  of  a  man  with  the 
maternal  uncle's  daughter  is  decidedly  the  more  common 
variety. 

Cross-cousin  marriage  has  a  very  interesting  distribution. 
Far  from  being  universal,  it  is  nevertheless  reported  from 
every  grand  division  of  the  globe.  In  West  Australia  and 
about  Lake  Eyre  tribes  prescribing  marriage  with  a  mater- 
nal uncle's  daughter  jostle  others  which  prohibit  any  such 
union.  The  custom  flourishes  in  several  of  the  Melanesian 
Islands,  notably  in  Fiji,  but  is  discountenanced  in  nearby 
Polynesian  groups,  such  as  Samoa.  Southern  Asia  may  turn 
out  to  be  the  center  where  the  institution  attains  its  high- 
est development ;  at  all  events,  it  has  l>een  fully  described 
for  the  Toda  and  Vedda,  occurs  among  various  peoples  of 
India  and  Farther  India,  such  as  the  Tibeto-Burman  Mikir 
of  Assam,  and  also  in  Sumatra.  Nor  is  it  lacking  in  Si- 
beria ;  the  Gilyak  enjoin  the  union  of  a  man  with  his  moth- 
er's brother's  daughter,  and  it  is  at  least  likely  that  the 
cousin  marriages  permitted  by  the  Kamchadal  and  Tungus 
conform  to  the  same  pattern.  While  relatively  rare  in 
America,  this  usage  is  reported  from  the  northern  coast  of 
British  Columbia,  from  central  California,  and  Nicaragua; 
and  the  fact  that  in  South  America  Chibcha  women  have  a 
single  word  for  husband  and  father's  sister's  son  suggests 
that  they  too  frequently  mated  with  cross-cousins.  Whether 
this  type  of  preferential  mating  is  countenanced  by  the 
Sudanese  Negroes,  is  doubtful ;  but  it  is  orthodox  in  parts 
of  South  and  East  Africa, — among  the  Hottentot,  Herero, 
Basuto  and  Makonde. 

It  may  be  asked  what  happened  in  these  tribes  if  a  man 
had  no  cross-cousin, — if  his  mother  had  no  brother  or  her 
brother  no  daughter.     From  our  best  accounts  it  is  clear 


28  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

that  in  such  cases  a  substitution  of  some  more  remote  rela- 
tive occurred  who  was  reckoned  of  the  same  status.  This 
took  place,  we  are  told,  among  the  Kariera  of  West  Aus- 
tralia :  preeminently  it  was  the  daughter  of  a  man's  mother's 
own  brother  that  was  his  prospective  spouse ;  but  failing 
such  an  uncle,  he  would  apply  to  a  mother's  parallel  male 
cousin  or  if  necessary  even  to  a  more  remote  maternal  kins- 
man provided  he  too  was  called  maternal  uncle. 

In  this  connection  an  important  question  arises.  If 
primitive  folk  commonly  extend  the  term  for  cross-cousin 
so  as  to  embrace  many  more  remote  relatives,  are  we  not 
here  confronted  with  a  serious  source  of  error?  Is  it  not 
possible  that  our  authorities  have  mistaken  the  native  mean- 
ing and  given  the  impression  that  near  kin  are  expected  to 
marry  when  in  reality  the  form  of  marriage  favored  may 
be  that  between  far  more  remote  relatives  or  even  between 
fictitious  relatives  ?  Fortunately  modern  investigators  have 
made  their  records  sufificiently  specific  to  render  an  answer 
possible.  The  Toda,  the  Vedda,  and  the  Fijians  definitely 
prescribe  the  marriage  of  actual  cross-cousins  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  term  whenever  possible.  Thus,  nearly  30  per 
cent  of  the  Fijian  marriages  tabulated  by  Mr.  Thomson  are 
of  this  type.  With  the  Toda  the  figure  does  not  quite  come 
to  12  per  cent,  but  this  is  explained  by  the  transfer  of  wives 
in  later  life,  which  follows  no  definite  rule  and  thus  ob- 
scures the  orthodox  arrangement  of  infant  betrothals. 
Even  so  there  are  families  rigidly  adhering  to  the  norm, 
with  six  out  of  eight  unions  conforming  to  theory.  Dis- 
parity of  age  is  no  obstacle,  so  that  a  woman  of  twenty  may 
be  wedded  to  a  boy  of  two.  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Gif- 
ford  informs  us  that  among  the  Miwok  of  California  local 
differences  have  arisen  as  to  the  favored  degree  of  the 
cross-cousin  unions.  Some  divisions  countenance  actual 
cross-cousin  marriages,  others  restrict  them  to  cousins  of 
the  same  status  but  more  distantly  related. 

Altogether  our  data  suffice  to  prove  that  in  one's  own 


MARRIAGE  '  29 

generation  the  incest  sentiment  cannot  be  instinctive  so  far 
as  first  cousins  are  concerned  but  must  be  conventional.  If 
it  were  instinctive,  why  are  unions  of  parallel  cousins  gen- 
erally tabooed  and  those  of  cross-cousins  frequently  en- 
joined? Why  does  one  tribe  permit  cross-cousin  mar- 
riage, while  the  institution  is  anathema  to  its  next-door 
neighbors?  Why  do  some  communities  license  marriage 
with  the  daughter  of  a  maternal  uncle  but  under  no  condi- 
tions allow  the  other  variety  of  cross-cousin  marriage 
(Miwok,  e.g.)? 

Another  question  that  arises  in  connection  wath  this  in- 
stitution is  to  what  extent  it  is  not  only  permitted  or  even 
prescribed  but  obligatory.  While  the  data  are  generally 
too  meager  to  permit  a  general  answ^er,  it  seems  that  tribes 
differ  widely  in  this  regard.  The  Kariera,  if  I  interpret 
the  evidence  correctly,  make  cross-cousin  marriage  prac- 
tically compulsory;  the  Fijians  made  allowances  to  indi- 
vidual antipathy;  while  wath  the  Toda  and  Miwok  other 
co-existing  forms  of  orthodox  marriage  share  the  field 
with  cross-cousin  unions. 

Can  any  interpretation  be  offered  as  to  the  essential  mean- 
ing and  origin  of  this  institution?  Tylor,  following  Fison, 
gives  a  plausible  explanation  why  marriages  of  cross-cousins 
are  permissible  w^hile  those  of  parallel  cousins  are  tabooed. 
He  assumes  that  the  custom  arose  in  communities  subdi- 
vided into  exogamous  halves  wnth  fixed  rules  of  descent. 
In  such  cases  parallel  cousins  will  ahvays  belong  to  the 
same  half,  hence  w^ill  be  prevented  from  marrying  by  the 
exogamous  law%  while  cross-cousins  wnll  belong  to  comple- 
mentary halves  and  hence  remain  unaffected  by  the  exog- 
amous restriction.  For  example,  if  affiliation  be  inherited 
from  the  father,  then  the  following  condition  develops.  A 
man  and  his  brothers  and  sisters  all  belong  to  their  father's 
half  of  the  tribe,  A.  The  children  of  this  man  and  those 
of  his  brothers  will  also  be  A,  hence  are  precluded  from 
intermarriage.     But  his  sisters  are  obliged  to  marry  men 


30  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

of  B,  and  their  children  are  all  B,  hence  of  the  group  which 
the  brother's  children  must  marry  into. 

This  would  be  an  exemplary  solution  if  cross-cousin  mar- 
riage were  merely  the  marriage  between  members  of  cer- 
tain groups  regardless  of  degrees  of  kinship.  But,  as  Rivers 
has  pointed  out,  and  as  the  data  from  Fiji,  the  Toda  and 
elsewhere  prove,  this  assumption  is  contrary  to  fact.  It  is 
often  the  first  cross-cousin  that  is  regarded  as  the  prefer- 
ential mate,  more  remote  members  of  his  kinship  category 
being  only  substitutes  in  case  of  necessity.  This  is  what 
Tylor  fails  to  explain.  All  he  shows  is  that  in  a  dual  or- 
ganization cross-cousins  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term  would 
be  among  potential  mates.  He  does  not  explain  why  the 
next  of  kin  among  these  potential  spouses  are  considered 
preeminently  the  proper  ones  and  the  remainder  merely 
makeshifts.  A  further  difficulty  lies  in  the  fact  that  by  no 
means  all  of  the  tribes  practising  cross-cousin  marriage  are 
organized  into  exogamous  halves.  The  Toda  are  halved 
but  into  endogamous  groups ;  while  the  Gilyak,  Tsimshian 
and  the  South  African  tribes  mentioned  above  lack  the  dual 
organization  altogether.  Further,  Dr.  Rivers  has  shown 
that  in  Melanesia  it  is  precisely  the  tribes  lacking  such  an 
organization  which  practise  cross-cousin  marriage,  while 
this  institution  is  absent  where  the  dual  organization  is  in 
full  swing.  Hence  it  cannot  be  the  simple  consequence  of 
an  exogamous  dual  system. 

For  Melanesia  Dr.  Rivers  offers  an  alternative  hypothe- 
sis avowedly  constructed  to  cover  only  the  Oceanian  data. 
He  assumes  that  at  first  the  old  men  in  power  arrogated  to 
themselves  the  available  women,  but  later  surrendered  their 
marital  privileges  to  their  sisters'  sons,  ultimately  substi- 
tuting daughters  for  wives.  An  analogous  interpretation, 
but  of  a  rather  less  hypothetical  cast,  is  presented  by  Mr. 
Gifford.  He  finds  evidence  that  the  cross-cousin  marriage 
of  the  Mi  wok  is  a  relatively  recent  institution  and  was  pre- 
ceded by  marital  rights  over  the  daughter  of  one's  wife's 


MARRIAGE  31 

brother.  These  rights,  Mr.  Gifford  plausibly  argues,  were 
passed  on  by  inheritance  to  the  man's  son,  whence  marriage 
with  the  daughter  of  the  maternal  uncle.  It  is  important  to 
note  that  in  consonance  with  their  respective  data  Dr.  Rivers 
and  Mr.  Gifford  assume  different  rules  of  descent,  a  matter 
to  be  dealt  with  below.  In  Melanesia  it  is  or  was  the  sister's 
son,  in  central  California  the  son  that  held  the  position  of 
heir-apparent,  hence  if  cross-cousin  marriage  is  at  all  the 
consequence  of  inheritance  rules,  as  both  authors  assume, 
either  explanation  is  satisfactory  but  applicable  only  to 
tribes  with  corresponding  laws  of  succession. 

It  is  of  course  conceivable  that  cross-cousins  came  to 
marry  each  other  by  a  less  round-about  method.  Where  the 
possession  of  property  plays  a  dominant  role  in  the  tribal 
consciousness,  as  in  British  Columbia,  the  motive  of  keeping 
desirable  belongings  wnthin  the  family  circle  may  well  lead 
to  marriage  with  the  father's  own  sister's  daughter  or  the 
mother's  own  brother's  daughter,  as  Swanton  suggests.  An- 
other, though  often  related,  cause  lies  in  the  sentiment  of 
caste,  which  discountenances  union  with  a  person  of  lesser 
rank.  To  be  sure,  such  ends  would  be  equally  served  by 
the  marriage  of  parallel  cousins.  But  these,  as  has  been 
noted,  are  commonly  called  siblings  and  with  the  primitive 
tendency  to  identify  what  is  similarly  named  are  reckoned 
as  siblings,  i.e.,  the  incest  feeling  is  extended  to  them.  The 
cross-cousins  would  thus  remain  as  the  next  of  kin  whose 
marriage,  being  permissible  by  customary  law,  could  at  the 
same  time  preserve  the  property  and  the  social  prestige 
within  the  family. 

It  should  be  noted  that  all  the  explanations  offered  of 
late  are  based  on  specific  conditions.  Cross-cousin  marriage 
is  in  all  probability  not  a  phenomenon  that  has  evolved 
from  a  single  cause  but  one  that  has  independently  arisen  in 
several  centers  from  diverse  motives. 

Before  leaving  this  interesting  institution,  a  few  words 
must  be  devoted  to  its  influence  on  the  classification  of  kin- 


32  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

dred.  Where  a  man  regularly  weds  the  daughter  of  his 
mother's  brother  or  of  his  father's  sister,  a  maternal  uncle 
will  normally  be  his  father-in-law,  or  a  paternal  aunt  his 
mother-in-law.  Hence  it  is  not  at  all  remarkable  that  in 
many  tribes  practising  this  form  of  marriage  the  men  desig- 
nate mother's  brother  and  father-in-law  by  a  single  term 
and  also  have  another  single  word  for  father's  sister  and 
mother-in-law.  This  is  the  case  in  Fiji  and  among  the 
Vedda.  But  the  effect  of  this  form  of  marriage  may  go 
farther.  Since  a  man's  mate  is  normally  his  cross-cousin,  we 
sometimes  find  that  there  is  no  distinct  word  for  'husband' 
or  'wife'  but  one  term  for  both  the  husband  and  male  cross- 
cousin  of  a  woman,  and  another  for  both  the  wife  and 
female  cross-cousin  of  a  man.  Further,  a  brother-in-law 
may  be  called  by  the  same  terms  as  a  man's  male  cross- 
cousin,  W'hile  a  woman  will  call  her  sister-in-law  by  the 
same  designation  as  her  female  cross-cousin.  However, 
by  no  means  all  tribes  proceed  with  uniform  consistency  in 
this  regard,  and  where  other  forms  of  preferential  mating 
coexist  with  cross-cousin  marriage  (as  among  the  Mi  wok), 
the  influence  of  the  latter  may  be  dwarfed  or  even  reduced 
to  nothingness. 

Widespread  as  is  the  distribution  of  cross-cousin  mar- 
riage, it  pales  into  insignificance  before  that  of  two  other 
forms  of  preferential  mating,  the  levirate  and  the  sororate. 
Though  frequently  in  association,  these  customs  also  occur 
separately  and  accordingly  are  best  treated  in  juxtaposition 
rather  than  as  a  single  phenomenon. 

Tylor  found  the  levirate  in  fully  one-third  of  the  tribes 
for  which  data  were  extant  in  his  day.  Nowadays  the  pro- 
portion found  would  undoubtedly  be  far  greater.  Indeed, 
it  is  easier  to  count  cases  where  the  custom  is  positively 
known  to  be  lacking  than  to  enumerate  instances  of  its 
occurrence.  In  North  America  it  seems  to  be  definitely  dis- 
countenanced only  among  the  Pueblo  groups  of  the  south- 
west, while  even  among  the  neighboring  Navaho  Indians 


MARRIAGE  33 

usage  requires  a  widow  to  wed  her  husband's  brother  or 
some  other  one  of  his  close  kinsmen.  However,  the  levirate 
does  not  everywhere  appear  in  the  same  form.  First  of  all, 
a  fair  number  of  tribes  restrict  the  widow's  remarriage  to 
younger  brothers  of  the  deceased  husband,  as  do  the  Kor- 
yak and  the  Andaman  Islanders.  Though  perhaps  most 
commonly  recorded  in  Asia,  the  junior  levirate  is  by  no 
means  confined  to  that  continent,  for  it  is  reported  from 
Santa  Cruz  (Melanesia)  and  West  Australia.  Owing  to 
the  inadequate  information  usually  vouchsafed  on  this  sub- 
ject by  observers,  we  cannot  even  be  sure  that  the  levirate 
is  not  commonly  of  this  type.  Nevertheless,  for  some  re- 
gions our  data  are  sufficiently  specific  to  prove  that  the  levi- 
rate does  exist  in  the  unrestricted  form  as  well.  This  holds, 
e.g.,  for  the  Banks  Islands  and  the  Torres  Straits. 

Secondly,  the  juridical  and  psychological  implications 
of  the  levirate  may  be  quite  different.  With  the  Thompson 
River  Indians  the  brother  of  the  deceased  had  an  incon- 
testable right  to  the  widow ;  in  many  other  places,  as  among 
the  Thonga,  the  woman  is  permitted  to  choose  from  among 
a  considerable  number  of  her  husband's  kinsmen ;  in  still 
other  regions  the  arrangement  appears  to  be  in  no  sense 
obligatory.  Indeed,  the  aboriginal  attitude  is  sometimes 
almost  antithetical  to  what  might  be  conjectured  off-hand : 
the  woman  is  not  so  much  claimed  by  way  of  prerogative 
as  she  is  inherited  as  an  obligation.  That  is,  the  brother-in- 
law  is  required  to  furnish  protection  and  support  to  the 
widow  and  her  children.  This  is  often  the  nature  of  the 
relationship  among  the  Chukchi  and  apparently  also  among 
the  Gournditch-Mara  of  southwestern  Victoria  (Australia). 

Where  there  is  so  much  difference  in  conception  and  so 
little  exact  information,  it  would  be  vain  to  concoct  a  theory 
for  all  the  known  cases.  The  one  general  remark  that  may 
safely  be  offered  is  Tylor's  view  that  the  levirate  results 
from  the  notion  of  marriage  as  a  compact  between  groups 
rather  than  individuals.    From  this  principle  it  follows  that 


34  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

when  a  union  terminates  by  the  death  of  one  of  the  mates, 
a  substitute  is  automatically  supplied  by  the  group  of  the 
deceased.  Beyond  this  point  we  shall  have  to  inquire  into 
the  specific  conditions  of  the  social  environment,  the  status 
of  woman  in  the  community  examined,  the  accepted  methods 
of  acquiring  a  spouse. 

For  a  large  number  of  cases  we  can  account  by  the  rules 
prevalent  as  to  the  acquisition  of  a  wife.  Where  the  woman 
is  definitely  purchased  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  she 
naturally  forms  an  inheritable  chattel.  Thus  among  the 
Kirgiz  a  younger  brother  inherits  the  widow  even  if  he  is 
a  minor.  Similarly,  a  Kai  widow  becomes  the  property  of 
an  unmarried  brother  of  her  deceased  husband ;  a  man  from 
another  family  wishing  to  marry  her  is  obliged  to  offer  pay- 
ment. The  underlying  conceptions  appear  with  great  clarity 
in  Shasta  law.  Since  a  man's  brothers  and  kinsmen  prac- 
tically always  contribute  to  the  bride-price  in  this  Califor- 
nian  tribe,  they  establish  a  secondary  claim  to  the  woman, 
and  on  the  husband's  death  she  naturally  passes  into  the 
custody  of  a  brother  or,  failing  one,  of  a  more  remote  male 
relative. 

That  property  concepts  often  lie  at  the  root  of  the  levi- 
rate  appears  from  other  forms  of  preferential  mating  which 
coexist  with  the  levirate  or  supersede  it.  In  a  polygamous 
Thonga  household  of  five  wives  the  principal  widow  is  likely 
to  fall  to  the  lot  of  that  one  of  the  husband's  younger 
brothers  who  becomes  master  of  the  estate,  the  second  and 
third  wives  go  to  two  other  brothers,  the  fourth  to  a  nephew 
(sister's  son)  of  the  deceased,  the  fifth  to  one  of  his  sons, 
who  of  course  must  not  be  her  own.  That  is  to  say,  those 
kinsmen  who  inherit  part  of  a  man's  wealth  also  are  entitled 
to  inherit  a  widow.  Similarly  we  find  in  the  Melanesian 
Banks  Islands  and  on  the  Northwest  Coast  of  North  Amer- 
ica in  addition  to  the  levirate  the  rule  that  a  wife  may  pass 
into  the  possession  of  the  deceased  husband's  sister's  son. 
It  can  hardly  be  an  accident  that  in  both  these  regions  the 


MARRIAGE  35 

sister's  son  is  reckoned  the  heir-apparent  to  his  uncle's 
property. 

Though  this  principle  explains  much,  it  obviously  does 
not  explain  everything.  Why  do  we  often  encounter  the 
levirate  in  the  restricted  form?  As  Jochelson  points  out, 
both  elder  and  younger  brothers  inherit  a  deceased  man's 
possessions,  yet  only  his  juniors  are  permitted  to  wed  the 
widow.  A  common  sense  explanation  suggests  itself,  but  it 
should  not  be  taken  as  more  than  a  guess.  Other  things 
being  equal,  the  elder  brother  is  likely  to  marry  before  the 
younger,  who  may  sometimes  be  hard  put  to  it  to  acquire 
a  mate,  either  because  of  an  exorbitant  bride-price  or  because 
available  women  are  scarce.  Under  such  conditions  the 
junior  levirate  may  have  arisen  on  the  view  that  to  him  who 
has  not  shall  be  given,  and  this  tendency  may  have  been 
standardized  into  customary  law. 

Another  limitation  to  the  property  conception  of  the 
levirate  lies  in  the  fact  that  there  are  peoples  practising  it 
who  do  not  purchase  wives  and  do  not  regard  women  as 
property  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term.  In  not  a  few  of 
these  cases,  however,  we  may  reasonably  fall  back  on  Ty- 
lor's  general  principle  of  primitive  marriage  as  a  family 
contract :  since  from  the  aboriginal  point  of  view  the  union 
of  individuals  is  often  largely  symbolic  of  an  alliance  of 
groups,  a  deceased  mate  is  naturally  superseded  in  the 
matrimonial  relationship  by  a  member  of  the  same  group. 

This  assumption  gains  in  weight  when  we  find  it  also 
accounting  admirably  for  the  complementary  custom  of  the 
sororate.  The  Shasta  levirate  has  been  described  above. 
It  is  coupled  with  the  sororate  in  an  illuminating  manner. 
Just  as  the  man's  brothers  unite  to  pay  for  his  bride,  so  the 
bride's  family  are  jointly  responsible  for  the  services  nor- 
mally to  be  expected  from  a  wife.  If  she  fails  to  bear 
children,  they  gratuitously  furnish  a  sister  or  cousin  as  a 
supplementary  spouse ;  and  the  same  rule  obtains  after  the 


36  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

first  wife's  demise.  There  is  here  involved  not  merely  a 
right  but  an  obligation  on  the  husband's  part :  he  may  marry 
outside  his  wife's  family  only  by  their  specially  granted 
leave. 

On  the  basis  of  Tylor's  theory  we  should  expect  the  levi- 
rate  and  the  sororate  to  coexist,  and  in  very  large  measure 
they  undoubtedly  do,  while  contrariwise  the  Pueblo  In- 
dians who  were  found  to  lack  the  levirate  likewise  do  not 
practise  the  sororate.  This  intimate  correlation  is  rightly 
insisted  upon  by  Frazer,  who  has  collected  instances  of  the 
sororate  from  all  regions  of  the  globe.  The  connection 
would  undoubtedly  appear  to  be  even  closer  were  not  much 
of  our  information  on  the  marriage  rules  of  primitive  tribes 
of  rather  haphazard  character.  That  is,  it  may  safely  be 
assumed  that  in  not  a  few  instances  it  is  sheer  negligence 
or  defective  observation  that  lias  made  vv^riters  report  one 
of  the  two  customs  without  the  other.  There  are  neverthe- 
less some  noteworthy  cases  of  negative  correlation  that  must 
be  accepted  at  their  face  value.  While  the  Koryak  practise 
both  customs,  the  neighboring  Chukchi  have  only  the  levi- 
rate ;  and  the  same  applies  to  the  Masai  of  East  Africa,  who 
expressly  prohibit  marriage  with  two  women  between  whom 
there  is  any  blood-relationship.  Such  exceptions,  however, 
are  not  frequent  enough  to  interfere  with  the  conception 
of  the  levirate  and  the  sororate  as  two  closely  connected 
institutions. 

The  sororate,  like  the  levirate,  exists  in  two  main  forms, 
though  the  principle  of  differentiation  is  not  the  same.  A 
man  may  be  entitled  to  marry  his  first  wife's  sisters  during 
her  lifetime;  or  he  may  be  restricted  to  marriage  with  a 
deceased  wife's  sister,  A  precise  statement  as  to  the  dis- 
tribution of  these  two  types  is  hardly  possible  at  present, 
but  in  North  America  the  restricted  sororate  seems  to  flour- 
ish west  of  the  Rockies,  while  simultaneous  wedlock  with 
sisters  is  common  to  the  east  of  them.  A  parallel  to  the 
junior  levirate  is  afforded  by  the  probably  universal  rule 


MARRIAGE  37 

of  the  sororate  that  a  man  is  merely  entitled  to  wed  his  wife's 
younger  sisters.  This  limitation  is  easily  understood  when 
we  remember  that  in  primitive  society  girls  are  almost  in- 
variably married  off  at  or  soon  after  puberty,  so  that  a 
marriageable  girl's  elder  sister  would  already  be  the  wife 
of  another  man. 

Like  cross-cousin  marriage,  levirate  and  sororate  tend  to 
produce  a  definite  terminology  of  kinship.  As  Sapir  has 
pointed  out,  their  influence  may  be  exerted  in  two  distinct 
ways.  On  the  one  hand,  since  these  forms  of  marriage  lead 
to  the  identification  of  the  stepfather  and  the  paternal 
uncle,  the  stepmother  and  the  maternal  aunt,  it  is  natural 
to  designate  each  pair  of  these  relatives  by  a  single  term. 
Conversely,  a  brother's  child  becomes  the  stepchild  of  a 
man;  a  sister's  child,  the  stepchild  of  a  woman.  These 
features  were  actually  found  by  Sapir  among  the  Wishram 
of  southern  Washington.  More  interesting  still  is  the 
second  method  of  formulating  in  language  the  social  usages 
under  discussion.  Since  the  paternal  uncle  may  come  to 
marry  one's  mother  and  thus  occupy  a  father's  status,  he  is 
called  father  without  qualification ;  and  for  a  corresponding 
reason  the  mother's  sisters  are  called  by  the  same  term  as 
the  mother.  Further,  it  will  be  natural  for  a  man  to  class 
his  brothers'  children  with  his  own,  and  for  a  woman  to 
treat  in  similar  fashion  the  children  of  her  sisters.  More- 
over, since  a  man  often  marries  his  wife's  sisters,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  a  single  word  suffices  for  these  sisters-in- 
law  and  the  wife;  while  a  woman  will  have  but  one  appella- 
tion for  her  husband  and  her  potential  husband,  his  brother. 
These  designations  actually  occur  among  the  Yahi  of  north- 
ern California.  Now  this  Yahi  method  of  designating  rela- 
tives has  an  enormous  distribution  throughout  the  world, 
and  inasmuch  as  the  levirate  and  sororate  are  also  very 
widespread  institutions  they  offer  a  satisfactory  explanation 
of  what  from  our  point  of  view  seems  a  puzzling  phenome- 
non,— to  wit,   that  a  man  should  have  perhaps  a  dozen 


38  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

'fathers'  and  a  dozen  'mothers.'  Of  this  matter  we  shall 
have  occasion  to  speak  more  fully  later  on. 

Cross-cousin  marriage,  levirate,  and  sororate  are  by  no 
means  the  only  forms  of  preferential  mating.  In  fact,  in- 
cidentally we  have  already  met  several  others, — the  inherit- 
ance of  a  widow  by  a  sister's  son  or  stepson  (Thonga), 
the  marriage  of  a  man  and  his  wife's  brother's  daughter 
( Miwok) .  The  last-mentioned  variety  is  interesting  because 
it  has  appreciably  affected  Miwok  kinship  terminology.  As 
Mr.  Gifford  shows,  not  less  than  twelve  terms  reflect  this 
institution.  For  example,  the  word  wokli  is  applied  not  only 
to  a  wife's  brother  or  sister,  but  also  to  the  son  or  daughter 
of  her  brother;  for  since  a  man  marries  his  wife's  brother's 
daughter,  the  siblings  of  this  second  wife  become  his  sib- 
lings-in-law.  It  is  because  so  many  terms  of  kinship  reflect 
this  type  of  marriage  while  none  suggest  the  cross-cousin 
marriage  that  Mr.  Gifford  convincingly  argues  for  the 
greater  antiquity  of  the  former  among  the  Miwok. 

Though  no  attempt  is  made  here  to  exhaust  the  extant 
varieties  of  orthodox  marriage,  one  more  additional  type 
may  be  cited.  It  is  characterized  by  the  marriage  of  a  man 
not  with  his  mother's  brother's  daughter,  but  with  the 
daughter  of  his  mother's  mother's  brother's  daughter.  This 
form  of  marriage  suggests  the  cross-cousin  marriage  but 
differs  in  diminishing  the  closeness  of  relationship  by  one 
degree.  Restricted  to  Australia,  it  occurs  both  in  the  cen- 
tral and  western  sections,  its  area  of  distribution  adjoining 
that  of  the  cross-cousin  marriage.^ 

References 

Note.  All  titles  are  fully  quoted  in  the  Bibliography,  where  authors 
are  listed  alphabetically  and  their  several  publications  chronologically; 
titles  of  the  same  year  are  distinguished  by  letters.  The  chapter  refer- 
ences cite  the  author's  name  if  he  is  represented  by  a  single  title;  his 
name  and  the  date  if  two  or  more  papers  or  books  arc  listed;  and  if 
there  are  two  in  the  same  year,  the  letter  is  added.    The  pages  are  set 


MARRIAGE  39 

off  by  colons.     Examples:   Brown:    156.    Jochelson,  1908 :   739.    Rivers, 
1914  (b)  :  I,  123. 

^Hobhousc:  145.  Wissler,  1911  :  19.  Teit,  1900:  325 ;  id., 
1909:  591.  Si)inden,  1908:  250.  Hopkins:  45.  Boas,  1916 
(a)  :    498.     Rivers,  1906:    34  seq. 

-  Tylor,  1889:  253.  Brown:  156.  Rivers,  1914  (b)  :  i,  123. 
Radloff:  476-485.  Spietb :  120,  182-198,  61-66.  Keysser : 
85-92.  Junod :  i,  102-125,  194,  232,  258-266,  480.  Lowie, 
1917  (a)  :  46,  74  seq.;  id.,  1912:  220  seq.  Krause :  220  seq. 
Jochelson,  1908:  739  seq.  Roth,  1915:  315.  Whiffen : 
163.     Hearne:    104  seq.     Boas,  1907:   466.     Hobhouse :    153, 

158. 

^  Brown:  190-194.  Rivers,  1914  (b)  :  i,  48,  184,  257,  270, 
294;  II,  24,  121  seq.;  id.,  1906:  512  seq.  Thomson:  182-201. 
SeHgmann:  64,  75.  Stack  and  Lyall :  17.  Frazer,  J.  G., 
1910:  II,  188;  IV,  141-149.  CzapHcka:  89,  98  seq.,  107.  Boas, 
1916  (a)  :  440.  Swanton,  1905  (a)  :  50  seq.,  63,  68.  Gifford, 
1916;  187  seq.  Morgan,  1871  :  265.  Rivers,  1915.  Schinz : 
177.  Junod:  1,200,207,243.  Weule,  1908:  96.  Tylor,  1889: 
262  seq.,  253.  Franciscan  Fathers:  432.  Jochelson,  1908: 
748  seq.  Man:  71.  Brown:  158,190-194.  Reports,  v:  245. 
Teit,  1900:  325.  Bogoras:  608.  Howitt :  250.  Radloff:  485. 
Keysser:  88.  Dixon,  1907:  463.  Merker:  47.  Sapir,  1916: 
327-337.     Gifford,  1916:    190. 


CHAPTER  III 

POLYGAMY 

THOUGH  popularly  polygamy  is  understood  to  mean 
marriage  with  two  or  more  wives,  it  properly  desig- 
nates marriage  of  either  a  man  or  a  woman  with  more  than 
one  mate.  What  is  commonly  reckoned  as  polygamy  is 
accurately  called  polygyny,  the  complementary  institution 
being  polyandry.  In  addition  must  be  considered  the  union 
of  a  group  of  men  with  a  group  of  women,  a  custom  known 
as  group  marriage. 

Polygyny 

Polygamy  is  one  of  those  dangerous  catchwords  that  re- 
quire careful  scrutiny  lest  there  result  a  total  misunder- 
standing of  the  conditions  it  is  meant  to  characterize.  In 
every  human  society  the  number  of  male  and  of  female 
individuals  born  is  approximately  equal.  Hence  in  order 
to  have  either  polygyny  or  polyandry  as  a  fairly  common 
practice  it  is  obviously  necessary  that  some  non-biological 
factor  should  disturb  the  natural  ratio.  The  first  thing  to 
do  on  hearing  of  a  polygamous  people  is  to  demand  a  cen- 
sus of  the  marriageable  members  of  both  sexes.  Among 
the  Eskimo  such  are  the  rigors  of  an  Arctic  sea-hunter's 
life  that  the  adult  male  population  is  seriously  reduced,  so 
that  polygyny  becomes  arithmetically  possible.  Holm  re- 
ports a  settlement  in  southeastern  Greenland  with  a  popu- 
lation of  21,  of  whom  only  5  were  males.  But  the  general 
ratio  encountered  by  this  traveler  was  only  that  of  114 
women  to  every  100  men.    Of  the  Central  Eskimo  the  Kini- 

40 


POLYGAMY  41 

petu  (in  1898)  numbered  35  men,  46  women,  38  boys,  and 
2^  girls;  the  Aivilik  26  men,  34  women,  27  boys,  15  girls. 
West  of  Hudson  Eay  Captain  Comer  in  1902  found  119 
men,  123  women,  138  boys,  and  66  girls  among  the  Netchil- 
lik;  and  46  men,  58  women,  41  boys,  33  girls  among  the 
Samniktumiut.  That  is  to  say,  in  none  of  these  instances 
save  Holm's  first-mentioned  settlement  is  even  bigamy  pos- 
sible as  a  universal  institution.  Indeed,  in  Cranz's  day 
hardly  one  Greenlander  in  twenty  had  two  wives,  Captain 
Holm  never  found  a  man  with  three,  and  even  an  unusually 
influential  Aivilik  contented  himself  with  two.  In  short, 
even  among  the  Eskimo,  who  constitute  an  a  fortiori  case, 
monogamy  is  the  rule  in  practice,  though  polygyny  is  per- 
mitted ;  and  marriage  with  more  than  two  women  is  un- 
doubtedly exceptional. 

It  is  true  that  from  Africa  there  are  reported  instances 
of  an  extraordinary  multiplicity  of  wives.  Even  disre- 
garding such  anomalies  as  the  Dahomi  court,  where  all 
the  Amazons  are  by  a  fiction  considered  wives  of  the  king, 
we  find  well-authenticated  cases  of  men  with  five,  ten, 
twenty  and  even  sixty  wives,  and  these  at  least  so  far  as 
the  first-mentioned  figure  is  concerned  are  described  as 
fairly  common.  Unfortunately  none  of  the  authorities  I 
have  seen  on  the  subject  deigns  to  furnish  us  with  data  as 
to  the  relative  numbers  of  the  sexes.  From  remarks  inci- 
dentally dropped  by  them  it  seems  certain  that  only  the 
wealthy  and  the  eminent  men  have  polygynous  households. 
Thus,  among  the  Kikuyu  of  East  Africa  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Routledge  found  monogamy  "quite  usual" ;  two  or  three 
wives  were  common ;  and  the  rich  had  six  or  seven.  It  is 
clear  that  even  so  moderate  an  indulgence  in  polygyny  on 
the  part  of  the  socially  distinguished  would  make  it  very- 
difficult  for  many  young  men  to  acquire  a  mate  at  all.  But 
the  consequent  hardship  is  mitigated  by  two  conditions. 
In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  chance  of  inheriting  a  wife 
through  the  levirate  or  one  of  the  other  orthodox  methods. 


42  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Secondly,  there  is  a  widespread  tendency  to  connive  at 
what  we  should  consider  irregularities  among  young  people 
prior  to  wedlock.  A  Thonga  is  thus  in  a  position  to  gratify 
his  sexual  appetite  long  before  his  kin  have  amassed  the 
amount  paid  for  a  legitimate  wife. 

The  African  data  show  that  in  addition  to  the  biological 
limitation  of  polygamy  there  enter  the  restrictions  imposed 
by  economic  conditions.  Where  the  bride-price  is  of  con- 
siderable value,  even  bigamy  is  practically  out  of  the  ques- 
tion for  the  average  man,  though  it  may  be  sanctioned  by 
theory.  The  Kirgiz,  though  converts  to  Islam,  cannot  as 
a  rule  afford  to  buy  a  second  wife,  and  a  man  hardly  ever 
avails  himself  of  his  legal  privilege  unless  his  first  mate  is 
barren.  Similarly,  for  the  vast  majority  of  the  Kai  the 
practice  of  even  bigamy  is  impracticable,  though  permitted, 
and  it  remains  largely  confined  to  the  chiefs. 

Another  purely  social  factor  limiting  polygyny  requires 
attention.  Some  peoples  practise  what  is  known  as  mafri- 
local  residence,  i.e.,  the  bridegroom  settles  with  his  wife's 
parents.  Unless  the  sororate  is  in  vogue,  the  espousal  of 
a  second  wife  thus  becomes  dependent  on  the  permission  of 
the  parents-in-law.  Thus,  the  Zufii  and  Hopi,  who  prac- 
tise matrilocal  residence  but  not  the  sororate,  are  strictly 
monogamous.  It  cannot  be  said  that  this  custom  absolutely 
bars  polygyny,  but  it  certainly  strongly  tends  to  limit  it. 
The  Yukaghir  of  northern  Siberia  tell  of  instances  where 
a  man  lived  part  of  the  year  as  son-in-law  with  one  house- 
hold and  the  remainder  of  the  year  in  the  same  capacity  with 
another;  but  monogamy  was  decidedly  the  prevalent  form 
of  marriage. 

In  seeking  to  understand  the  psychology  of  primitive 
polygyny  we  must  first  of  all  eliminate  the  conventional 
preconceptions  on  the  subject.  Polygyny  is  not  by  any 
means  a  sign  of  feminine  inferiority  or  felt  as  a  degradation 
by  the  women  concerned.  The  husband  may  be  prompted 
to  take  a  second  wife  not  by  an  excessive  libido  but  by  his 


POLYGAMY  43 

first  wife's  eagerness  to  shift  part  of  her  household  duties 
on  other  shoulders.  "Why  have  I  to  do  all  the  work ;  why 
do  you  not  buy  another  wife?"  querulously  asks  the  Kikuyu 
wife.  In  the  same  spirit,  a  Kai  chief's  consort  will  have 
so  many  social  obligations  to  fulfill  that  she  gladly  welcomes 
the  arrival  of  a  helper;  and  similarly  a  Chukchi  woman  may 
even  insist  that  her  husband  acquire  an  additional  worker. 
With  the  Kai,  indeed,  the  possibilities  are  so  ample  for 
gratifying  one's  sexual  desires  in  adultery  that  in  legal 
marriage  with  a  second  wife  the  sexual  motive  is  elimi- 
nated. In  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  economic  and 
related  factors  are  far  more  potent.  Among  the  Thonga 
it  is  only  the  well-to-do  that  can  afford  to  buy  several 
wives,  but  the  investment  yields  ample  return  through  the 
services  rendered  by  them,  which  not  merely  suffice  to  sup- 
ply the  husband's  wants  but  enable  him  to  become  a  lavish 
entertainer  of  outsiders  and  thus  raise  his  social  prestige. 
In  this  way  polygyny  becomes  a  badge  of  distinction.  In 
a  very  different  environment,  the  Mackenzie  River  basin  of 
northern  Canada,  the  Athabaskans  had  their  women  trans- 
port goods,  and  the  chief  Matonabbee  had  as  many  as  seven 
or  eight  of  these  servant-waves.  Another  motive  for  taking 
additional  wives  lies  in  the  universal  longing  for  progeny. 
When  the  first  wife  is  barren,  it  is  thus  a  widespread  prac- 
tice for  the  husband  to  espouse  a  second  woman  in  the  hope 
of  gaining  issue  through  her.  The  sexual  factor  pure  and 
simple  is  of  course  not  to  be  wholly  ignored  in  the  discus- 
sion, but  everything  goes  to  show  that  its  influence  on  the 
development  of  polygyny  is  slight. 

The  analysis  of  polygynous  marriages  found  in  a  particu- 
lar tribe  will  prove  illuminating.  Among  the  Reindeer 
Koryak  Mr.  Jochelson  found  that  only  six  per  cent  of  the 
men  had  two  or  more  wives  each,  a  single  one  having  three. 
In  the  last-mentioned  case  the  first  wife  had  borne  children 
but  had  been  disfigured  by  illness,  and  the  second  w'ife 
proved  barren.     In  some  of  the  remaining  cases  bigamy 


44  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

was  resorted  to  because  of  the  first  wife's  sterility;  in  oth- 
ers she  had  been  inherited  through  the  levirate  and  was 
considered  too  old. 

It  remains  to  discuss  the  relation  to  one  another  of  the 
several  wives  in  a  polygynous  family.  In  Africa,  where 
their  number  is  frequently  considerable,  each  commonly  oc- 
cupies a  separate  hut  with  her  children  and  manages  an 
independent  household ;  the  Thonga  arranges  these  huts  in 
the  arc  of  a  circle  and  his  ideal  is  to  acquire  enough  wives 
to  complete  the  ring  of  habitations  within  his  enclosure.  As 
to  the  mutual  sentiments  of  fellow-wives,  accounts  vary. 
M.  Junod,  possibly  from  a  missionary's  bias,  draws  a  dark 
picture  of  domestic  bickerings  among  the  women,  but  no 
such  scenes  were  observed  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Routledge  in 
East  Africa  and,  as  they  rightly  remark,  the  separation  of 
wives  in  independent  establishments  makes  for  peace  and 
"places  the  whole  on  the  footing  of  a  village  under  one 
head  man."  Sporadic  instances  of  jealousy  must,  of  course, 
be  expected  to  occur  everywhere,  but  when  an  additional 
wife  is  taken  at  the  request  of  the  first  the  danger  is  mini- 
mized. The  same  result  may  be  effected  by  the  sororate; 
at  least  among  the  Hidatsa  the  natives  have  developed  the 
theory  that  sisters  are  less  likely  to  quarrel  in  this  relation- 
ship than  unrelated  women.  Among  the  Koryak  and  Chuk- 
chi our  authorities  generally  found  harmony  in  polygynous 
families  but  record  occasional  instances  of  ill-temper,  and 
this  probably  represents  the  most  typical  condition  wher- 
ever polygyny  is  practised. 

Doubtless  an  important  factor  in  producing  harmony  lies 
in  the  definite  superiority  all  but  universally  accorded  to 
the  first  wife.  Thus  in  the  Siberian  tribes  just  cited  the 
second  wife  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  her  predecessor's 
maid.  Precisely  the  same  relationship  obtains  among  the 
distant  Kai  in  New  Guinea,  where  the  first  wife  sends  the 
other  women  for  firewood  or  water  and  orders  them  to  pre- 
pare meals  for  the  guests.     Similar  conditions  are  reported 


POLYGAMY  45 

from  the  Masai.  Here,  too,  the  first  wife  superintends  the 
others,  receives  a  larger  portion  of  her  husband's  cattle  for 
use,  and  is  distinguished  by  the  number  and  value  of  his 
gifts. 

Altogether  a  study  of  the  facts  leads  to  a  rather  different 
view  of  polygyny  from  that  which  might  be  assumed  on 
the  basis  of  modem  prejudice  against  the  institution.  But 
the  one  fact  it  is  most  important  to  rememl>er  is  that  while 
probably  a  majority  of  primitive  tribes  permit  polygamy, 
biological  and  in  some  measure  social  conditions  prevent 
the  majority  within  any  one  group  from  availing  themselves 
of  their  theoretical  prerogative.^ 

Polyandry 

Polyandry  has  a  far  more  restricted  distribution  than 
polygyny.  Indeed,  well-authenticated  cases  may  be  counted 
on  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  It  occurs  in  some  (by  no  means 
all)  Eskimo  communities  and  as  an  occasional  device  among 
the  Wahuma  (Bahima)  of  East  Africa,  while  its  highest 
development  is  seen  in-  Tibet  and  southern  India.  For 
those  who  incline  to  a  purely  economic  interpretation  of 
social  life  it  may  be  interesting  to  have  pointed  out  the  dif- 
ferences in  economic  status  among  the  peoples  in  question. 
The  Eskimo  are  maritime  hunters,  the  Wahuma  and  Toda 
are  pastoral,  while  only  the  agricultural,  not  the  nomadic, 
Tibetans  have  been  found  to  practise  polyandry.  In  an- 
other sense,  however,  the  economic  factor  enters  among  the 
Wahuma  and  the  Eskimo. 

Wahuma  polyandry  is  an  altogether  unique  phenomenon. 
While  legitimate,  it  is  not  a  dominant  institution  but  occurs 
only  under  special  circumstances  and  for  a  restricted  period. 
When  a  man  is  too  poor  to  buy  a  wife  alone,  he  is  assisted 
by  his  brothers,  and  these  share  his  marital  rights  until  the 
woman's  pregnancy,  when  they  become  his  exclusive  pre- 
rogative. 


46  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

In  this  form  polyandry  does  not  require  a  disturbance  of 
the  natural  ratio  between  the  sexes,  but  where  it  is  the  gen- 
eral custom  it  presupposes  an  artificially  produced  prepond- 
erance of  the  marriageable  males.  This  may  be  effected 
in  different  ways.  In  certain  Eskimo  communities  the  con- 
ditions of  life  are  so  arduous  that  female  children  are 
considered  a  burden  and  are  frequently  killed  shortly  after 
birth ;  and  thus  the  polygynous  tendency  due  to  the  perils 
of  masculine  life  is  more  than  checked.  Female  infanti- 
cide, though  apparently  not  founded  in  economic  necessity, 
is  likewise  at  the  bottom  of  Toda  polyandry.  But  the  agri- 
cultural Tibetans  do  not  practise  infanticide  except  when 
directly  influenced  by  Chinese  example ;  yet  they  are  poly- 
androus  and  the  Chinese  are  not.  Unfortunately  the  Tib- 
etan data  on  this  point  are  far  from  clear. 

Among  the  Tibetans  polyandry  is  of  the  fraternal  variety, 
i.e.,  several  brothers  share  a  wife.  In  cases  of  barrenness 
it  is  interesting  to  note  that  a  second  wife  is  chosen,  who  may 
be  a  sister  of  the  first.  Though  our  information  is  not  so 
precise  as  we  might  wish,  it  seems  that  some  economic  con- 
siderations are  potent  in  the  moulding  of  Tibetan  marriage 
customs.  Why,  e.g.,  is  polyandry  restricted  to  the  agricul- 
tural natives  and  to  the  fraternal  type?  Rockhill  assumes 
that  the  cause  lies  in  the  desire  to  transmit  an  estate  un- 
divided. 

Our  data  on  the  Toda  are  far  and  away  the  most  satis- 
factory and  permit  us  to  gain  an  insight  into  what  poly- 
androus  life  is  like.  First  of  all,  we  find  that  as  far  back 
as  trustworthy  records  extend  there  has  been  a  marked 
excess  of  men  over  women,  coupled  with  the  practice  of 
female  infanticide.  But  this  custom  has  been  abandoned  in 
ever  increasing  measure  as  a  result  of  Caucasian  influence, 
and  accordingly  there  is  a  progressive  diminution  of  male 
preponderance.  "In  1871  there  were  140.6  men  for  every 
100  women;  in  1881,  130.4  for  every  100;  in  1891,  135.9, 
and  in  the  census  of  1901,  127.4  men  for  every  100  women." 


POLYGAMY  47 

These  official  census  reports  are  confirmed  by  Dr.  Rivers' 
independent  genealogical  records.  For  three  successive  gen- 
erations these  show  that  the  numbers  of  males  for  every 
lOO  females  were  159.7,  131 -4,  and  129.2  in  one  of  the  Toda 
divisions,  and  259,  202,  and  171  respectively  in  the  other 
and  more  conservative  group.  The  motive  for  female  in- 
fanticide among  the  Toda  remains  obscure,  for  there  is 
nothing  in  their  present  or  past  history  to  suggest  that  they 
were  driven  by  economic  necessity.  Its  obsolescence  has 
affected  marriage  customs  in  a  most  interesting  manner, 
which  will  be  described  below. 

Most  commonly,  but  not  always,  Toda  polyandry  is  of 
the  fraternal  variety.  That  is,  when  a  man  marries  a  woman 
it  is  understood  that  she  becomes  the  wife  of  his  brothers, 
who  normally  live  together.  Even  a  brother  subsequently 
born  will  be  regarded  as  sharing  his  elder  brothers'  rights. 
In  cases  of  fraternal  polyandry  no  disputes  ever  arise  among 
the  husbands,  and  the  very  notion  of  such  a  possibility  is 
flouted  by  the  Toda  mind.  When  the  wife  becomes  preg- 
nant, the  eldest  of  her  husbands  performs  a  ceremony  with 
a  bow  and  arrow  by  which  legal  fatherhood  is  convention- 
ally established  in  this  tribe,  but  all  the  brothers  are  reck- 
oned the  child's  fathers. 

The  situation  becomes  more  complicated  when  a  woman 
weds  several  men  who  are  not  brothers  and  who,  as  may 
happen,  live  in  different  villages.  Then  the  wife  usually 
lives  for  a  month  with  each  in  turn,  though  there  is  no  abso- 
lute rule.  In  such  cases  the  determination  of  fatherhood 
in  a  legal  sense  is  extremely  interesting.  For  all  social  pur- 
poses that  husband  who  performs  the  bow  and  arrow  cere- 
mony during  the  wife's  pregnancy  establishes  his  status  as 
father  not  only  of  the  first  child  but  of  any  children  bom 
subsequently  until  one  of  the  other  husbands  performs  the 
requisite  rite.  Usually  it  is  agreed  that  the  first  two  or 
three  children  shall  belong  to  the  first  husband,  that  at  a 
later  pregnancy  another  shall  establish  paternal  rights,  and 


48  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

so  forth.  Biological  paternity  is  completely  disregarded, 
for  a  man  long  dead  is  considered  the  father  of  a  child  pro- 
vided no  other  man  has  performed  the  essential  rite. 

The  statistics  cited  above  show  recent  approximation  to 
the  normal  ratio  of  the  sexes  owing  to  the  diminishing  of 
female  infanticide.  It  might  be  supposed  that  this  develop- 
ment would  lead  directly  to  monogamy,  but  that  would  be 
failing  to  reckon  with  the  force  of  conservatism  in  the  ad- 
justment of  social  relations.  What  the  Toda  have  done  is 
to  cling  to  polyandry  and  temper  it  with  polygyny.  Where 
formerly  three  brothers  shared  a  single  wife,  they  now  tend 
to  share  two,  in  this  way  adapting  themselves  to  the  excess 
of  women  as  compared  with  their  former  scarcity. 

Altogether  the  facts  relating  to  polyandry  are  instructive 
in  illuminating  the  weakness  of  the  unilinear  theory  of  evo- 
lution, the  theory  that  an  inherent  law  causes  all  societies 
to  evolve  the  same  customs  in  a  uniform  sequence.  Toda 
and  Eskimo  polyandry  are  both  causally  related  with  female 
infanticide ;  so  far,  then,  there  is  parallelism,  the  same  cause 
leading  to  the  same  effect.  But  what  lies  back  of  female 
infanticide?  In  the  Eskimo  case,  the  rigors  of  economic 
existence  in  the  Arctic ;  among  the  Toda  the  cause  of  female 
infanticide  is  obscure,  but  we  know  positively  that  it  bears 
no  relation  to  the  economic  life.  Again  we  may  compare  the 
ancient  Toda  and  the  Tibetan  conditions.  In  both  tribes  a 
paucity  of  marriageable  women  renders  polyandry  possible, 
but  that  paucity  is  produced  in  different  ways  since  infanti- 
cide is  not  practised  by  the  polyandrous  Tibetans.  In  de- 
veloping their  polyandrous  usages  the  Eskimo,  Toda,  and 
Tibetans  have  not  been  impelled  to  follow  the  same  series 
of  stages,  though  one  stage — scarcity  of  women — naturally 
leads  to  polyandry  as  its  sequel.  The  fact  that  the  Toda 
have  come  into  contact  with  a  foreign  culture  which  sup- 
presses infanticide  has  exercised  a  greater  influence  on  the 
history  of  their  marriage  customs  than  any  inherent  law  of 
social  evolution.     These  foreign  influences  may  ultimately 


I 


POLYGAMY  49 

force  Eskimo,  Toda,  and  Tibetan  alike  to  adopt  compulsory 
monogamy,  but  if  that  result  be  achieved  it  will  be  because 
all  three  tribes  have  borrowed  the  same  custom  from  the 
same  cultural  center  not  because  of  some  mystical  tendency 
of  polyandry  to  pass  through  like  stages  into  obligatory 
monogamy. 

Before  leaving  this  type  of  marriage,  it  is  necessary  to 
discriminate  true  polyandry  from  the  customs  by  which  men 
may  temporarily  waive  their  marital  rights  in  favor  of 
others.  This  usage  proceeds  from  the  proprietary  claim  of 
a  man  to  his  wife's  favors,  which  he  may  therefore  yield  at 
his  pleasure,  either  to  conciliate  a  superior  or  as  a  token  of 
friendship.  Thus,  among  the  Crow  a  young  man  would 
temporarily  surrender  his  wife  to  a  comrade  or  to  an  older 
man  whose  supernatural  powers  he  desired  to  share ;  indeed, 
such  surrender  was  a  normal  part  of  the  transaction  by  which 
various  Plains  Indian  tribes  acquired  certain  ceremonial 
privileges.  As  a  matter  of  simple  hospitality  this  custom 
is  reported  from  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe.  A  Masai 
visiting  a  strange  settlement  at  once  calls  on  a  member  of 
his  own  age-class,  who  forthwith  abandons  his  wife  and 
hut  to  the  visitor ;  and  to  mention  but  one  other  instance,  in 
various  Australian  tribes  the  men  consider  it  a  duty  to  fur- 
nish their  distinguished  guests  with  bed-mates.^ 

Sexual  Communism 

If  we  conceive  the  recent  tendency  of  the  Toda  toward 
combined  polyandry  and  polygyny  developing  into  the  dom- 
inant form  of  marriage,  we  shall  have  many  groups  of 
brothers  each  united  to  a  corresponding  group  of  two  or 
more  wives.  The  units  involved  in  what  has  been  called 
group  marriage  may,  however,  vary  considerably  accord- 
ing to  the  size  of  the  groups,  their  constitution,  and  the 
restrictions  on  marital  intercourse  which  are  enforced.  If 
there  were  a  complete  lack  of  incest  rules  in  a  community, 


50  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

so  that  not  merely  brother  and  sister  but  even  parent  and 
child  would  mate  without  incurring  reprobation,  we  should 
have  a  condition  of  perfect  promiscuity.  At  the  other  end 
of  the  scale  would  be  the  definitely  regulated  marriages  of 
the  modern  Toda.  Since  the  term  'marriage'  is  hardly  ap- 
plicable to  some  of  the  conditions  labeled  group  marriage, 
I  will  follow  Dr.  Rivers'  suggestion  and  substitute  as  a 
generic  equivalent  sexual  communism.  Deferring  a  theoret- 
ical discussion  of  this  condition,  let  us  first  consider  some 
of  the  concrete  data. 

In  the  first  place  we  must  recognize  that  far-reaching 
sexual  communism  may  exist  side  by  side  with  individual 
marriage.  That  is  to  say,  one  portion  of  the  community 
may  live  according  to  the  former  principle,  the  remainder 
according  to  the  other.  Our  own  civilization  with  its  con- 
nivance at  prostitution  presents  as  clear  an  example  as  pos- 
sible. Primitive  societies  differ  mainly  in  that  sexual  com- 
munism is  openly  sanctioned  within  the  corresponding  lim- 
its. The  Bororo  of  the  Mato  Grosso  are  divided  into  the 
older  men  regularly  married  and  living  in  separate  huts, 
and  the  bachelors  inhabiting  a  special  dwelling,  where  they 
jointly  possess  such  girls  as  they  capture  from  the  village 
and  for  whom  they  pay  to  their  mistresses'  brothers  or  ma- 
ternal uncles  either  arrows  or  articles  of  personal  adorn- 
ment. While  these  Brazilian  data  are  unfortunately  inade- 
quate for  a  full  comprehension  of  the  social  regulations 
involved,  the  Masai  situation  is  perfectly  clear.  Here,  too, 
there  is  a  segregation  of  the  unmarried  warriors,  all  men 
below  approximately  thirty,  who  cohabit  freely  with  the 
immature  young  girls.  Each  brave  has  his  favorite  mis- 
tress, who  tends  his  cattle  and  manufactures  objects  for  his 
personal  decoration.  This  mistress  is  never  identical  with 
the  girl  betrothed  to  a  man  in  childhood,  for  his  fiancee  is 
obliged  to  dwell  in  another  warrior's  camp.  So  long  as  the 
warrior  remains  in  his  kraal,  his  sweetheart  remains  faith- 
ful; but  if  he  absents  himself  for  a  single  day,  his  exclusive 


POLYGAMY  51 

claims  upon  her  lapse  and  she  may  choose  another  lover. 
In  all  these  relations,  however,  the  tribal  incest  rules  are 
strictly  obeyed.  When  a  bachelor  has  had  his  fill  of  the 
warrior's  life,  he  leaves  the  companionship  of  the  kraal  and 
settles  down  in  a  separate  establishment  with  his  fiancee, 
provided  she  has  succeeded  in  avoiding  pregnancy,  which  is 
considered  disgraceful. 

Bororo  and  Masai  usages,  like  the  practice  of  prostitution 
among  ourselves,  obviously  in  no  way  conflict  with  the  in- 
stitution of  individual  marriage,  which  on  the  contrary  is 
the  normal  condition  after  the  period  of  youthful  profligacy. 
There  are,  however,  tribes  from  which  sexual  communism 
is  reported  without  any  such  limitations. 

The  most  authentic  case  is  that  of  the  Chukchi.  It  is 
important  to  note  first  of  all  that  among  these  people  sexual 
communism  is  a  general  practice  embracing  practically  all 
families.  Second  or 'third  cousins,  or  even  unrelated  men 
desirous  of  cementing  a  firm  bond  of  friendship,  will  form 
a  group  exercising  marital  rights  over  all  the  wives  of  the 
men  concerned.  Brothers  do  not  enter  such  agreements. 
Bachelors  are  rarely  admitted  into  the  union  since  this  is 
based  primarily  on  reciprocity.  At  times  sexual  commun- 
ism extends  to  as  many  as  ten  couples.  When  we  scrutinize 
the  concrete  data  cited  by  Bogoras,  it  becomes  obvious  why 
the  term  'group-marriage'  which  he  used  in  common  with 
other  writers  is  really  inapplicable.  The  Chukchi  'com- 
panions in  wives'  do  not  dwell  together  with  their  spouses 
in  a  communal  household.  They  are  members  of  distinct 
camps  and  the  obvious  object  of  the  institution  is  to  provide 
travelers  with  temporary  bed-mates.  A  Chukchi  thus  has 
but  rarely  the  opportunity  to  exercise  the  potential  right 
acquired  by  the  mutual  agreement.  "The  inmates  of  one 
and  the  same  camp  are  seldom  willing  to  enter  into  a  group- 
marriage,  the  reason  obviously  being  that  the  reciprocal  use 
of  wives,  which  in  group-marriage  is  practised  very  sel- 
dom, is  liable  to  degenerate  into  complete  promiscuity  if 


52  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

the  members  of  the  group  live  too  close  together,"  In  other 
words,  the  institution  has  nothing  to  do  with  unrestricted 
sexual  license  but  is  founded  on  aboriginal  notions  of  recip- 
rocal hospitality.  It  is  true  that  sometimes  a  'companion' 
takes  another's  wife,  lives  with  her  for  several  months, 
and  then  returns  her;  or  that  an  exchange  of  wives  may- 
become  permanent.  But  these  very  facts,  while  clearly 
demonstrating  that  Chukchi  notions  of  conjugal  fidelity 
differ  from  ours,  establish  beyond  a  doubt  the  individual 
nature  of  Chukchi  marriage.  Bogoras  records  isolated  in- 
stances of  polyandry,  but  never  did  he  find  several  com- 
panions simultaneously  sharing  their  several  wives'  services. 
The  exchange  of  wives  does  not  imply  group  marriage  but 
merely  the  succession  of  one  individual  marriage  after 
another.  Chukchi  marriage  is  individual  marriage  tempered 
with  the  occasional  and  temporary  extension  of  the  hus- 
band's purely  sexual  rights  to  his  fellow-contractors. 

Sexual  communism  as  a  normal  condition,  thus  excluding 
individual  marriage,  has  been  confidently  ascribed  to  the 
Urabunna  and  Dieri,  two  Australian  tribes  inhabiting  the 
vicinity  of  Lake  Eyre.  Owing  to  the  fragmentary  nature 
of  the  Urabunna  evidence,  it  will  be  ignored  in  favor  of 
that  from  the  Dieri. 

Among  the  Dieri  the  orthodox  form  of  marriage  for  a 
man  is  union  with  his  mother's  mother's  brother's  daughter's 
daughter  or  with  his  mother's  father's  sister's  daughter's 
daughter.  When  a  boy  and  a  girl  stand  to  each  other  in 
this  relationship,  they  are  potential  spouses  and  a  childhood 
betrothal  may  be  arranged  by  their  mothers  and  maternal 
uncles ;  normally  there  will  be  an  exchange  of  girls  by  the 
two  contracting  parties,  so  that  a  boy  in  each  family  is 
provided  with  a  mate.  No  woman  is  ever  the  affianced 
wife  of  more  than  one  man.  However,  after  the  marriage  is 
consummated,  it  is  possible  for  the  wife  to  become  the  con- 
cubine of  several  other  men,  married  or  single.  Precise 
statistics  showing  to  what  extent  and  between  whom  such 


POLYGAMY  53 

marital  relations  obtain  are  unfortunately  lacking,  but  a 
number  of  specific  statements  by  Howitt  enable  us  to  form 
some  picture  of  the  resulting  condition  of  affairs.  Tt  should 
be  noted  that  in  every  case  the  man  and  woman  indulging 
in  sexual  intercourse  must  stand  to  each  other  in  the  ortho- 
dox relationship  as  defined  above.  In  perfect  consistency 
with  this  rule  we  find  that  brothers  who  have  married  sisters 
may  share  their  wives  and  that  a  widower  in  return  for 
presents  takes  his  brother's  wife  for  his  concubine.  More- 
over, a  visitor  of  the  proper  relationship  may  be  offered  his 
host's  wife  as  a  temporary  concubine.  Normally,  however, 
concubines  seem  to  be  assigned  through  formal  allotment 
by  the  council  of  elders,  which  confers  rights  of  concubinage 
on  individuals  who  are  potential  spouses.  In  practice,  it 
seems  that  only  men  of  distinction  are  likely  to  have  a  num- 
ber of  concubines ;  others  will  be  advised  by  the  dominant 
elders  to  confine  themselves  to  a  single  one.  A  further 
check  to  excessive  concubinage  lies  in  the  mutual  jealousy 
of  the  subsidiary  mates,  each  of  whom  discountenances  new 
relations  of  concubinage,  being  permitted  to  pour  hot  coals 
over  the  mate  suspected  of  contemplating  a  new  liaison.  A 
bachelor's  concubine  is  especially  prone  to  exercise  sur- 
veillance over  his  sexual  life. 

In  all  this  the  two  most  significant  facts  are:  (a)  that  a 
wife  invariably  takes  precedence  over  the  concubine  when 
both  occupy  the  same  camp;  and  (b)  that  the  husband — 
the  duly  affianced  spouse — enjoys  an  undisputed  preemptive 
right  over  his  wife.  No  concubitant  can  lawfully  abduct  his 
concubine  from  her  husband  except  at  periods  of  general 
license ;  he  may  merely  exercise  his  subordinate  rights  in  the 
husband's  absence  or  with  his  consent.  Again,  a  wife  may 
indeed  take  the  initiative  and  ask  her  husband  to  select  a 
properly  related  man  for  her  concubitant;  but  if  her  hus- 
band refuses,  she  has  no  redress,  and  contrariwise  she  has 
no  power  of  veto  when  allotted  as  a  concubine. 

Inadequate  as  are  our  data,  which  suggest  various  queries 


54  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

that  remain  unanswered,  it  is  clear  that  what  Howitt  de- 
scribes as  'group  marriage'  does  not  represent  a  uniform 
psychological  or  sociological  phenomenon.  It  is  surely  one 
thing  for  a  man  to  yield  marital  privileges  to  a  widowed 
brother,  and  something  quite  different  for  him  to  conciliate 
an  honored  guest  by  surrendering  his  bed ;  and  neither 
practice  bears  even  a  remote  resemblance  to  the  formal  al- 
lotment to  one  another  of  potential  spouses  by  a  council  of 
elders.  'Group  marriage'  might  rightly  be  predicated  of 
a  community  in  which  groups  of  men  shared  marital  rights 
on  equal  terms  over  corresponding  groups  of  women.  No 
such  condition  obtains  among  the  Dieri :  the  husband  is  the 
well-nigh  absolute  overlord  over  his  wife's  sexual  life,  the 
concubitant  a  mere  substitute.  Even  'sexual  communism' 
seems  to  be  a  very  misleading  term  for  what  actually  occurs, 
since  communism  hardly  suggests  the  complete  overshadow- 
ing by  one  partner  of  the  other  'communists.'  Moreover, 
everything  we  can  gather  on  the  subject  suggests  that  while 
marriage  among  the  Dieri  is  permanent  the  actual  state  of 
concubinage  is  ordinarily  of  quite  temporary  duration. 
Finally,  the  population  of  the  Australian  local  group  is  so 
small  that  the  number  of  properly  related  individuals  who 
might  become  concubitants  is  extremely  restricted  to  begin 
with.  When  we  consider  the  additional  restrictions  of  con- 
cubinage by  sexual  jealousy  and  the  admonitions  of  elders, 
both  of  which  factors  are  stressed  by  our  authority,  it  is 
obvious  that  in  the  everyday  life  of  the  average  Dieri  man 
concubinage  cannot  possibly  play  the  part  suggested  by  the 
pretentious  terms  'group  marriage'  or  'sexual  commun- 
ism.' There  is  assuredly  a  certain  amount  of  fraternal 
polyandry  mixed  with  polygyny ;  some  surrender  of  marital 
prerogatives  on  the  score  of  hospitality;  and  still  more  in 
deference  to  men  of  social  prestige.  But  that  the  majority 
of  Dieri  men  live  in  individual  wedlock  for  the  greater  part 
of  their  lives  is  obvious.  Communism  on  the  Toda  plan 
there  may  be  when  two  brothers  dwell  with  two  sisters ;  but 


POLYGAMY  55 

when  a  concubitant  assumes  an  absentee  husband's  place 
there  is  at  best  merely  one  individual  relationship  supersed- 
ing another.  Altogether  we  have  seen  before  that  primitive 
marriage  cannot  be  regarded  solely  or  even  predominantly 
from  the  sexual  point  of  view ;  and  to  leap  from  the  fact 
that  more  than  one  man  may  have  access  to  a  woman  to 
the  conclusion  that  there  is  an  institution  of  group  marriage 
is  little  short  of  absurd,  as  Dr.  Malinowski  correctly  re- 
marks. 

Besides  the  Dieri  and  the  Chukchi,  a  few  other  tribes, 
such  as  the  Gilyak  of  the  Amur  region,  have  been  reported 
as  practising  sexual  communism  to  the  exclusion  of  indi- 
vidual marriage.  The  data,  however,  are  of  so  inadequate 
a  character  that  they  may  be  ignored  until  additional  infor- 
mation is  available.  Considering  the  extreme  paucity  of  all 
the  reported  cases  of  'group  marriage'  and  the  results  of 
our  analysis  of  the  sexual  communism  found  among  the 
Chukchi  and  Dieri,  we  are  justified  in  concluding  that 
hitherto  no  evidence  has  been  adduced  to  show  that  any 
people  in  the  world  have  in  recent  times  practised  sexual 
communism  in  a  manner  destructive  of  the  individual 
family.^ 

Hypothetical  Sexual  Communism 

However,  it  is  possible  to  harmonize  this  verdict  with  the 
theory  that  though  primitive  tribes  no  longer  practise  group 
marriage  they  have  risen  to  the  practice  of  individual  mar- 
riage after  passing  through  antecedent  stages  of  sexual 
communism.  This  has  in  fact  been  the  dominant  view 
among  modern  sociologists  and  its  historical  significance 
requires  a  brief  examination  of  the  reasons  for  its  vogue. 

When  evolutionary  principles,  having  gained  general  ac- 
ceptance in  biology,  had  begun  to  affect  all  philosophical 
thinking,  it  was  natural  to  extend  them  to  the  sphere  of 
social  phenomena.    Among  the  first  to  embark  on  this  ven- 


S6  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

ture  was  Lewis  H.  Morgan,  whose  ethnographical  treatise 
on  the  Iroquois  had  estabHshed  his  reputation  as  an  accurate 
and  sympathetic  observer  of  primitive  custom.  Under  the 
influence  of  evokitionary  doctrines  Morgan  outlined  a  com- 
plete scheme  for  the  development  of  human  marriage.  It 
was  eminently  characteristic  of  the  intellectual  atmosphere 
of  the  period  that  Morgan's  first  stage  should  be  a  condi- 
tion of  perfect  promiscuity,  in  which  sexual  lust  was  unre- 
stricted by  any  incest  rule.  Complete  lack  of  regulation  of 
sex  life  is  manifestly  the  diametrical  opposite  of  obligatory 
monogamy,  and  the  evolutionary  theorist  of  the  day  was 
bent  on  connecting  the  most  diverse  phenomena  by  a  graded 
series  of  intermediaries.  For  the  mid- Victorian  thinker  it 
was  a  foregone  conclusion  requiring  only  statement  not 
proof  that  monogamy  is  the  highest  form  of  marriage  in 
the  best  of  conceivable  universes ;  and  it  was  equally  axio- 
matic that  earl}^  man  must  have  lived  under  conditions  in- 
finitely removed  from  that  ideal  goal.  So  Morgan  made 
no  pretense  at  producing  empirical  proof  of  pristine  promis- 
cuity, which  in  fact  he  assigned  to  the  period  when  man  was 
still  hovering  near  the  border  line  between  humanity  and 
a  lower  organic  stage.  He  advanced  promiscuity  as  a  logi- 
cal postulate  precisely  as  some  evolutionary  philosophers 
advance  the  axiom  of  spontaneous  generation ;  and  thereby 
placed  it  beyond  the  range  of  scientific  discussion. 

It  was  otherwise  with  Morgan's  second  stage,  that  of  the 
'consanguine  family,'  based  on  the  intermarriage  of 
brothers  and  sisters  but  barring  that  of  parents  and  children. 
For  this  stage,  while  nowhere  observable,  as  a  general 
tribal  usage,  was  inferred  by  Morgan  as  the  only  possible 
cause  of  certain  empirical  phenomena.  In  other  words,  he 
was  here  no  longer  indulging  in  logical  axioms  but  proceed- 
ing in  the  spirit  of  the  scientists  who  invented  the  atom  to 
account  for  the  behavior  of  chemical  substances.  The  fact 
which  Morgan  adduced  as  conclusive  proof  of  the  former 
intermarriage  of  brothers  and   sisters  was  the  Hawaiian 


POLYGAMY  57 

method  of  designating  kin.  That  method  is  of  a  simpler 
character  than  the  one  usually  found  in  savage  tribes. 
While  many  primitive  peoples  carefully  distinguish  between 
maternal  and  paternal  relatives,  the  Hawaiians  not  only 
draw  no  such  distinction  but  apply  their  kinship  terms  so  as 
to  include  all  relatives  of  the  same  generation  regardless  of 
propinquity.  For  example,  makua  designates  both  the  par- 
ents and  all  their  brothers  and  sisters,  sex  being  indicated 
by  qualifying  words  meaning  'man'  and  'woman.'  Mor- 
gan argues  that  the  maternal  uncles  were  called  by  the  same 
term  as  the  fathers  because  all  were  fathers  in  the  sense  of 
having  free  access  to  their  sisters ;  that  similarly  all  of  a 
man's  nephews  and  nieces  were  called  sons  and  daughters 
because  all  his  sisters  were  his  wives,  as  they  were  the  wives 
of  his  brothers;  and  so  forth.  It  isi  Morgan's  contention 
that  while  the  customs  reflected  in  kinship  nomenclature 
have  a  tendency  to  pass  out  of  existence  the  terminology 
itself  is  more  conservative  and  thus  furnishes  a  sort  of 
palaeontological  record  of  social  institutions. 

In  the  first  place,  while  Morgan's  inference  as  to  the 
prior  existence  of  the  consanguine  family  has  an  empirical 
foundation,  this  does  not  hold  for  the  place  he  assigned  to 
the  inferred  stage  in  his  scale.  Even  admitting  that  his  data 
prove  the  former  intermarriage  of  brothers  and  sisters,  we 
are  not  compelled  by  the  evidence  to  assign  to  that  practice 
any  particular  age.  If  Morgan  does  claim  a  hoary  antiquity 
for  this  condition,  placing  it  immediately  after  the  reign  of 
utter  lawlessness,  it  is  because  of  the  tacit  assumption  per- 
vading his  entire  scheme  that  a  unilinear  series  may  be 
postulated  bridging  by  degrees  the  gap  between  promiscuity 
and  monogamy.  Only  on  that  hypothesis  does  it  follow  that 
the  inferred  stage  of  the  consanguine  family  must  come 
directly  after  one  of  antecedent  promiscuity  and  before  other 
types  of  the  family.  Yet  had  Morgan  not  been  smitten  with 
purblindness  by  his  theoretical  prepossessions,  he  might  well 
have  paused  before  ascribing  to  the  Polynesians  the  part  they 


58  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

play  in  his  scheme.  For  the  aboriginal  civilization  of  Poly- 
nesia, instead  of  suggesting  by  its  crudeness  an  extreme  an- 
tiquity for  any  and  all  of  its  constituents,  must  rank  among 
the  very  noblest  of  cultures  devoid  of  the  metallurgical  art. 
When  Morgan  assigned  to  this  settled,  politically  organized 
and  marvelously  aesthetic  race  the  lowest  status  among  sur- 
viving divisions  of  mankind  he  attained  the  high-water  level 
of  absurdity,  which  accounts  of  Oceanian  exploration  acces- 
sible even  in  his  day  would  have  sufficed  to  expose.  It  is 
true  that  missionary  reports  had  described  marriages  of 
brother  and  sister  in  the  uppermost  social  stratum  of  Hawaii, 
but  this  merely  indicates  that  in  Hawaii,  as  in  ancient  Egypt 
and  Peru,  such  unions  resulted  from  pride  of  blood  evolved 
in  an  inordinately  sophisticated  civilization. 

Morgan,  however,  not  merely  assumes  the  relative  chro- 
nology of  the  consanguine  family  and  his  other  stages  with- 
out the  slightest  empirical  warrant,  but  lays  himself  open 
to  the  still  more  serious  charge  of  drawing  wrong  inferences 
from  the  existence  of  the  Hawaiian  system.  Some  of  the 
objections  against  his  logic  have  been  forcibly  urged  by 
Herr  Cunow,  whose  strictures  are  all  the  more  noteworthy 
because  of  his  appreciation  and  partial  acceptance  of  Mor- 
gan's work.  To  begin  with  a  specific  point,  Morgan  over- 
looks the  fact  that  the  Hawaiian  system  not  merely  embraces 
blood-kindred  but  also  distinguishes  from  them  relatives 
by  affinity :  there  are  thus  distinct  terms  for  brother-in-law 
and  sister-in-law  and  even  a  specific  word  to  denote  the 
relationship  of  the  husband's  parents  to  the  wife's.  If  the 
Hawaiian  nomenclature  represents  the  consanguine  family 
stage,  Cunow  acutely  argues,  then  such  terms  of  affinity 
have  no  place  in  it.  For  with  intermarriage  of  brothers  and 
sisters  my  wife's  brother  is  my  brother,  while  her  parents 
are  my  own  parents  or  at  least  my  parents'  siblings. 

The  really  fundamental  error,  however,  lies  in  Morgan's 
assumption  that  a  native  term  translated  'father',  is  synony- 
mous  in  the   native  mind  with  'procreator.'     He  cannot 


POLYGAMY  59 

conceive  that  a  Hawaiian  could  ever  have  called  the  mater- 
nal uncle  'father'  unless  at  one  time  the  uncle  cohabited 
with  his  sister  and  was  thus  a  possible  procreator  of  her 
children.  But  this  is  to  misunderstand  the  evidence,  which 
does  not  teach  us  that  the  mother's  brother  is  called  father 
but  that  both  mother's  brother  and  father  are  designated  by 
a  common  term  not  strictly  corresponding  to  any  in  our 
language.  That  such  linguistic  identification  must  have  for 
its  basis  conjugal  intercourse  with  the  same  mate  is  an  arbi- 
trary assumption,  which  in  fact  leads  to  nonsensical  conse- 
quences. For  as  McLennan  observed  before  Cunow,  the 
theory  that  all  'fathers'  are  potential  begetters  involves  the 
parallel  view  that  the  'mothers'  whom  a  Hawaiian  reckons 
up  by  dozens  are  believed  to  have  all  conceived  and  borne 
him.  To  be  sure,  Morgan  lamely  sidesteps  the  fatal  diffi- 
culty by  asserting  that  here  the  native  intends  to  denote  a 
marriage  connection  rather  than  a  blood-relationship ;  he 
calls  his  mother's  sister  'mother'  because  she  is  the  wife 
of  his  reputed  father,  hence  after  a  fashion  his  stepmother. 
This,  however,  is  sheer  subterfuge.  The  extensions  of  the 
terms  translated  'father'  and  'mother'  respectively  are 
strictly  parallel ;  they  form  part  of  a  single  system  and 
demand  a  single  interpretation.  If  the  notion  of  actual 
parenthood  underlies  the  system  at  one  point,  it  must  do  so 
uniformly;  and  since  this  supposition  leads  to  a  monstrous 
conclusion,  it  must  be  discarded.  The  simple  explanation  of 
the  Hawaiian  system  lies  in  Cunow's  suggestion  that  it 
represents  the  stratification  of  blood  kindred  by  genera- 
tions. Our  own  nomenclature  is  not  so  far  removed  from 
this  type  as  might  at  first  blush  appear.  We  group  all  our 
parents'  siblings  under  the  terms  'uncle'  and  'aunt' ;  the 
essential  difference  lies  in  our  segregation  of  the  immediate 
family  circle  by  using  distinct  terms  for  father  and  mother. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  in  some  societies  stress- 
ing the  age  factor,  as  many  primitive  communities  do,  terms 
of  consanguinity  might  come  to  indicate  merely  generation. 


6o  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

to  the  extent  of  merging  the  next  of  kin  in  the  group  of 
their  contemporaries. 

In  short,  Morgan  fails  to  prove  that  the  Hawaiian  nomen- 
clature must  have  had  its  origin  in  the  intermarriage  of 
brothers  and  sisters ;  and  even  if  it  had  arisen  in  this  fashion, 
there  would  be  no  proof  that  either  the  terminology  or  its 
hypothetical  cause  is  of  great  antiquity. 

On  the  latter  point  we  can  go  somewhat  further.  While 
the  number  of  primitive  tribes  following  the  Hawaiian  sys- 
tem of  nomenclature  is  limited,  a  far  greater  number  follow 
the  Dakota  and  Iroquois  plan  of  bifurcating  blood-kindred 
according  to  whether  they  are  maternal  or  paternal.  The 
Dakota,  like  the  Hawaiians,  have  a  single  word  for  father 
and  father's  brother,  and  another  for  mother  and  mother's 
sister ;  but  the  mother's  brother,  instead  of  being  classed  with 
the  father,  and  the  father's  sister,  instead  of  being  classed 
with  the  mother,  are  both  designated  by  specific  terms.  Now 
in  scrutinizing  nomenclatures  in  general  conformity  with 
the  Dakota  plan,  we  discover  details  of  distinctively  Ha- 
waiian complexion.  A  priori  these  might  be  accepted  as 
survivals  of  an  older  purely  Hawaiian  system,  but  specific 
circumstances  prove  conclusively  that  the  opposite  inter- 
pretation is  the  only  possible  one.  For  example,  a  Crow 
addresses  his  father's  sister  as  mother,  just  as  does  the 
Hawaiian.  Now  the  Crow  tongue  is  a  specialized  repre- 
sentative of  the  Hidatsa  branch  of  the  Siouan  family.  All 
the  other  Siouan  languages,  including  the  Hidatsa,  dis- 
criminate between  mother  and  father's  sister;  nay.  Crow 
speech  itself  does  so  whenever  the  paternal  aunt  is  not  di- 
rectly addressed.  Hence  it  is  quite  clear  that  Crow  vocative 
usage  is  not  a  survival  but  an  innovation.  Similar  recent 
changes  are  reported  from  the  Iroquois,  the  Torres  Straits 
Islanders,  the  Gilyak  of  Siberia,  and  the  Timne  of  West 
Africa.  It  is  therefore  justifiable  to  consider  Hawaiian 
features  as  frequently  the  result  of  secondary  development; 
and  when  these  specific  data  are  combined  with  the  high 


POLYGAMY  6 1 

cultural  status  of  the  Polynesians,  they  constitute  a  crushing 
argument  against  the  priority  of  either  the  Hawaiian  termi- 
nology or  of  any  social  customs  supposedly  linked  therewith. 
After  the  discussion  of  the  consanguine  family,  we  may 
deal  briefly  with  Morgan's  evidence  for  his  next  stage,  which 
represents  what  in  common  ethnographic  parlance  is  called 
group  marriage,  viz.,  a  condition  in  which  "the  group  of 
men  were  conjointly  married  to  the  group  of  women." 
Morgan  considers  particularly  the  institution  of  several  sis- 
ters sharing  a  group  of  husbands  not  necessarily  kinsmen  of 
one  another;  and  of  several  brothers  sharing  a  group  of 
wives  not  necessarily  related  to  one  another.  Group  mar- 
riage might  of  course  be  conceived  somewhat  differently, 
though  always  involving  a  combination  of  polyandry  with 
polygyny.  Thus,  Professor  Kohler  seeks  the  origin  of  the 
Dakota  kinship  nomenclature  in  the  custom  by  which  the 
brothers  AAA  marry  the  sisters  bbb,  and  the  brothers  BRB 
the  sisters  aaa.  It  is,  indeed,  again  the  kinship  terminology 
that  furnishes  the  main  argument  for  the  speculative  eth- 
nologist. As  in  the  previous  case  of  the  Hawaiian  system, 
he  ignores  obvious  alternatives  and  associates  our  concepts 
of  parenthood  with  primitive  terms  bearing  a  wholly  diverse 
significance.  Social  phenomena  already  described  amply 
account  for  the  Dakota  nomenclature.  In  the  levirate  and 
the  sororate  we  find  usages  explaining  fully  why  father  and 
father's  brother,  mother  and  mother's  sister  should  be 
classed  together.  These  phenomena  show  that  kinship  ter- 
minology is  not  necessarily  expressive  of  actual  sexual  rela- 
tions. A  man  may  never  come  to  inherit  his  brother's 
widow,  either  because  his  brother  survives  her  or  because 
she  is  married  by  another  brother.  Quite  regardless  of  this 
fact,  he  is  called  father  by  his  brother's  children,  and  cor- 
responding considerations  hold  for  the  sororate.  The  fact 
that  conjugal  relations  with  one's  mother  are  theoretically 
possible  for  a  number  of  individuals  is  sufficient  to  label 
them  all  with  a  common  designation.     There  is  no  reason 


62  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

for  assuming  that  the  natives  ever  meant  to  imply  more 
than  a  like  social  status  when  applying  like  kinship  terms. 

It  is  true  that  Morgan  interpreted  the  sororate  as  a  relic 
of  group  marriage,  and  Frazer  has  extended  the  interpre- 
tation to  the  levirate  as  well.  But  these  are  empty  guesses, 
which  may  be  disregarded.  Levirate  and  sororate  are  real 
institutions  intelligible  in  their  context;  they  are  not  rend- 
ered one  whit  more  intelligible  by  conceiving  them  as  sur- 
vivals of  a  condition  that  has  never  been  observed. 

To  sum  up.  Sexual  communism  as  a  condition  taking  the 
place  of  the  individual  family  exists  nowhere  at  the  present 
time;  and  the  arguments  for  its  former  existence  must  be 
rejected  as  unsatisfactory.  This  conclusion  will  find  con- 
firmation in  the  phenomena  of  primitive  family  life.* 

References 

^Thalbitzer:  15,  67.  Boas,  1907:  7,  115,  378.  Cranz:  i, 
209.  Routledge:  134.  Hollis,  1905 :  303.  Junod :  1,97,125- 
128,  274.  Radlofif:  484.  Keysser:  90,  44.  Jochelson,  1910: 
no  seq. ;  id.,  1908:  752-755.  Bogoras:  598-602.  Hearne : 
124  et  passim.    Merker  :  27  seq. 

^Annual  Archaeological  Report:  112.  Roscoe,  1907:  105. 
Rockhill:  211  seq.  Tafel :  11,  124  seq.  Rivers,  1906:  477- 
480,  515  seq.  Lowie,  1917  (a)  :  63,  id.,  1913:  228  seq.  Hol- 
lis, 1905  ;  288.     Frazer,  J. :   34. 

^  Von  den  Steinen :  388.  HolHs,  1905:  xvi.  Merker:  44, 
84.  Bogoras:  602-607.  Howitt :  163-167,  177- 187.  Malinow- 
ski:   100-123. 

*  Morgan,  1877:  Pt.  iii,  especially  Chapters  11,  iii,  vi.  Riv- 
ers, 1914  (b)  :  I,  275  seq.  Cunow,  1894:  54,  127  seq.;  id., 
1912:  50  seq.  Lowie,  1917  (a):  118,  162.  Kohler:  266. 
Frazer,  J.  G.,  1910;   IV,  139  seq, 


CHAPTER   IV 


THE     FAMILY 


BIOLOGICALLY  every  community  must  rest  on  the 
family, — the  group  comprising  a  married  couple  and 
their  children.  But  biological  and  sociological  necessity 
need  not  coincide.  It  does/  not  follow  that  the  biological 
family  must  exist  as  a  unit  differentiated  from  the  rest  of 
the  social  aggregate  of  which  it  forms  part.  Indeed,  in 
such  a  stage  of  sexual  communism  as  is  pictured  by  Mor- 
gan's school  the  family  would  be  wholly  submerged  in  a 
wider  group.  The  matter  is  thus  one  not  for  a  priori  argu- 
ment but  of  empirical  fact. 

Before  undertaking  the  inquiry  suggested  by  this  con- 
sideration, we  had  better  briefly  scrutinize  the  family  con- 
cept as  it  appears  in  our  own  civilization.  The  first  point 
to  be  specially  noted  is  its  bilateral  character,  which  indeed 
is  involved  in  our  definition.  That  is  to  say,  the  family  as 
a  social  unit  includes  both  parents  and  in  a  secondary  sense 
the  kindred  on  both  sides.  This  appears  in  the  duties  of 
parents  to  their  children  and  also  in  our  laws  of  inheritance, 
which  recognize  the  bond  with  both  maternal  and  paternal 
relatives.  The  desirability  of  emphasizing  this  feature  will 
become  manifest  later.  In  one  significant  respect,  however, 
the  bilateral  principle  is  abandoned  in  favor  of  another: 
our  family  is  patronymic,  the  wife  and  all  the  children  tak- 
ing the  father's  name.  In  this  way  the  husband,  his  sons 
and  their  male  descendants  through  males  together  with 
wives  and  unmarried  daughters,  are  segregated  as  Smiths. 
or  Browns  from  the  remainder  of  their  kin.    To  be  sure,. 

63 


64  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

this  is  a  point  rather  of  comparative  than  of  practical  im- 
portance. It  would  be  otherwise  if  all  the  Smiths,  however 
remotely  related,  formed  a  definite  social  unit  set  over 
against  the  rest  of  the  community,  e.g.,  if  in  the  inheritance 
of  property  the  most  remote  kinsman  of  the  same  family 
name  took  precedence  of  such  close  relatives  as  married 
daughters  or  the  sons  of  sisters.  Since  one-sided  empha- 
sis on  the  paternal  branch  of  the  family  is  not  in  vogue  with 
us  apart  from  the  transmission  of  the  name,  we  are  justi- 
fied in  describing  our  family  as  an  essentially  bilateral  one. 
The  question,  then,  that  concerns  us  above  all  others  is 
whether  primitive  tribes  similarly  recognize  the  bilateral 
principle  in  their  conception  of  family  life.  Whenever  they 
do,  we  shall  be  justified  in  holding  that  they  recognize  the 
family  as  a  social  unit  regardless  of  whatever  other  units 
may  coexist  with  it.  Let  us  then  first  consider  the  evidence 
for  the  presence  of  the  bilateral  principle  and  next  pass  in 
review  some  of  the  more  important  factors  that  tend  to 
mould  primitive  family  life,  often  causing  it  to  deviate  ap- 
preciably from  the  West  European  norm. 

The  Bilateral  Kin  Group 

Objective  testimony  of  quite  incontrovertible  character  is 
furnished  on  behalf  of  the  universality  of  the  family  unit 
by  the  recorded  systems  of  kinship  terminology.  As  even 
Morgan  pointed  out  in  a  discussion  with  McLennan,  every 
tribe  has  terms  of  relationship  for  both  the  paternal  and 
the  maternal  lines  and  in  so  far  acknowledges  bilateral  kin- 
ship. But  to  limit  this  attitude  to  the  matter  of  nomencla- 
ture would  be  to  understate  the  case  beyond  all  reason.  In 
by  far  the  majority  of  primitive  tribes  both  sides  of  the 
family  are  reckoned  with  not  only  in  vocabulary  but  in  cus- 
tomary law,  definite  functions  being  commonly  associated 
with  definite  types  of  relationship.  Thus,  the  Hopi  unlike 
ourselves  are  matronymic  since  what  corresponds  to  our 


THE  FAMILY  65 

family  name  is  transmitted  from  mother  to  child ;  but  the 
personal  name  is  invariably  bestowed  by  a  woman  of  the 
father's  kin  and  symbolically  suggests  that  group.  Among 
the  likewise  matronymic  Hidatsa  a  variety  of  social  usages 
bear  witness  to  the  importance  of  the  paternal  kindred. 
Thus,  sacred  objects  descend  from  father  to  son ;  the 
father's  relatives  are  entitled  to  gifts  on  all  occasions;  nick- 
names are  frequently  given  not  for  a  man's  own  peculiari- 
ties but  for  those  of  a  father's  kinsman  ;  and  it  is  the  father's 
kin  that  conduct  the  funeral  proceedings.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  find  the  patronymic  Thonga  assigning  a  very  re- 
markable position  to  the  maternal  uncle.  Here  the  mother's 
brother  lays  claim  to  a  portion  of  the  bride  price  and  plays 
an  important  part  in  his  nephew's  ceremonial  life,  while 
the  sister's  son  may  appropriate  his  uncle's  food  and  claim 
part  of  his  legacy,  at  times  even  inheriting  one  of  the 
widows.  To  cite  but  one  other  instance,  the  patronymic 
Torres  Straits  Islanders  permit  a  boy  or  man  to  take  his 
maternal  uncle's  most  valued  possessions,  while  the  nephew 
immediately  obeys  his  mother's  brother's  injunction  against 
fighting. 

The  subject  of  kinship  usages  is  a  large  one  and  cannot 
be  exhausted  in  a  paragraph.  In  the  present  connection  it 
is  simply  important  to  note  that  both  paternal  and  maternal 
kindred  are  regularly  recognized  and  that  such  a  thing  as 
taking  the  family  name  of  one  parent  in  no  wise  precludes 
important  social  relations  with  the  kin  of  the  other  side. 

Such  social  usages  as  have  been  cited  above  involve  an 
implicit  recognition  of  the  parent.  Both  parents  are  of 
course  also  directly  recognized  by  virtue  of  the  sentimental 
bond  connecting  them  with  their  children,  and  further  be- 
cause husband  and  wife,  together  with  at  least  their  younger 
children,  form  an  economic  and  industrial  unit.  Marriage, 
as  we  cannot  too  often  or  too  vehemently  insist,  is  only  to  a 
limited  extent  based  on  sexual  considerations.  The  primary 
motive,  so  far  as  the  individual  mates  are  concerned,  is  pre- 


66  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

cisely  the  founding  of  a  self-sufficient  economic  aggregate. 
A  Kai  does  not  marry  because  of  desires  he  can  readily 
gratify  outside  of  wedlock  without  assuming  any  responsi- 
bilities ;  he  marries  because  he  needs  a  woman  to  make  pots 
and  to  cook  his  meals,  to  manufacture  nets  and  weed  his 
plantations,  in  return  for  which  he  provides  the  household 
with  game  and  fish  and  builds  the  dwelling.  In  Queens- 
land the  father  supplies  the  family  with  larger  game  and 
fish,  the  mother  with  yams,  grass-seed,  fruits,  molluscs,  and 
smaller  fish.  In  central  Australia  there  is  a  similar  division 
of  labor  and  from  Dr.  Malinowski's  compilation  of  facts  it 
is  clear  that  throughout  the  continent  the  individual  family 
on  this  basis  normally  constitutes  a  definitely  segregated 
unit.  As  Mr.  Brown  remarks  regarding  the  West  Aus- 
tralian Kariera,  "the  unit  of  social  life  in  the  Kariera  tribe 
was  the  family,  consisting  of  a  man  and  his  wife  or  wives 
and  their  children.  Such  a  unit  might  move  about  by  itself 
without  reference  to  the  movements  of  the  other  families 
of  the  local  group.  In  the  camp  each  family  had  its  own 
hut  or  shelter  with  its  own  fire.  The  family  had  its  own 
food  supply  which  was  cooked  and  consumed  by  the  fam- 
ily. The  man  provided  the  flesh  food  and  his  wife  provided 
the  vegetable  food  and  such  things  as  small  mammals  or 
lizards."  The  economic  and  industrial  relations  of  the  Ewe 
mates  are  regulated  with  equal  definiteness.  It  is  the  hus- 
band's duty  to  furnish  meat  and  fish,  and  the  wife's  to  sup- 
ply salt ;  both  share  the  horticultural  work ;  the  woman 
spins,  while  the  man  weaves  and  mends  the  clothing. 

Such  facts  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  On  the 
strength  of  this  universal  trait  we  are  justified  in  concluding 
that  regardless  of  all  other  social  arrangements  the  indi- 
vidual family  is  an  omnipresent  social  unit.  It  does  not 
matter  whether  marital  relations  are  permanent  or  tempo- 
rary ;  whether  there  is  polygyny  or  polyandry  or  sexual  li- 
cense ;  whether  conditions  are  complicated  by  the  addition  of 
members  not  included  in  our  family  circle :  the  one  fact 


THE  FAMILY  6-] 

stands  out  beyond  all  others  that  everywhere  the  husband, 
wife  and  immature  children  constitute  a  unit  apart  from  the 
remainder  of  the  community.  In  primitive  society  it  is  in- 
deed usually  the  case  that  an  individual  owes  certain  duties 
to  a  whole  class  of  individuals  from  all  of  whom  he  in  turn 
expects  a  definite  mode  of  treatment.  But  as  Mr.  Brown 
admirably  points  out  in  the  article  quoted,  there  is  no 
confusion  as  to  the  intensity  of  the  obligation,  which  varies 
with  proximity  of  kinship.  Though  two  dozen  paternal 
uncles  and  fathers'  cousins  may  be  addressed  by  the  same 
term  as  the  father,  it  is  the  real  or  putative  father  that 
preeminently  supplies  his  wives  and  children  with  such  neces- 
saries as  ought  to  be  furnished  by  the  man  in  accordance 
with  primitive  custom.  So  we  have  seen  that  though  a 
man's  wth  cousin  may  be  called  his  brother,  it  is  his  own 
brother  that  inherits  the  widow  through  the  levirate,  and 
only  in  the  absence  of  brothers  does  a  more  remote  kinsman 
function  as  a  substitute. 

The  only  possible  escape  for  adherents  of  the  theory  that 
the  bilateral  family  is  unknown  to  primitive  man  is  to  flee 
from  the  patent  phenomena  of  the  cruder  contemporaneous 
societies  to  the  obscurities  of  a  remote  past.  The  hypothesis 
that  the  family  is  everywhere  a  relatively  late  product  of 
social  evolution  has  already  been  touched  upon  from  one 
point  of  view  and  will  be  reexamined  later  in  another  con- 
nection. For  the  present  it  suffices  to  establish  the  present 
universality  of  the  bilateral  family  concept. 

But  this  does  not  necessarily  involve  the  thesis  that  fam- 
ily life  must  therefore  everywhere  assume  the  same  form  it 
does  among  ourselves.  Indeed  the  fundamental  changes 
brought  about  within  a  century  in  our  own  family  life 
through  economic  developments  and  an  altered  conception 
of  woman's  status  would  reduce  any  such  supposition  to  an 
absurdity.  Usages  like  polyjjyny  and  polyandry  are  bound 
to  affect  the  character  of  the  family,  as  has  already  been 
indicated.    Recalling  some  data  presented  in  previous  chap- 


68  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

ters  and  anticipating  facts  to  be  more  fully  treated  below 
while  postponing  still  others  for  later  consideration,  I  will 
briefly  indicate  some  of  the  factors  that  vitally  affect  primi- 
tive family  life/ 

Looseness  of  the  Family  Unit 

Even  in  the  higher  cultures  the  individual  family  is  a 
conspicuously  unstable  unit.  When  daughters  marry  and 
take  up  their  abode  with  their  husbands  or  when  sons  estab- 
lish independent  households,  the  intimacy  of  the  bond  that 
united  them  with  the  parental  family  is  almost  inevitably 
weakened  if  not  wholly  destroyed.  Among  primitive 
peoples  who  rarely  if  ever  interpose  religious  scruples 
against  divorce  all  sorts  of  disruptive  forces  must  be  reck- 
oned with.  Sheer  bravado  often  tempted  Crow  men  pub- 
licly to  discard  their  wives  on  festive  occasions  by  way  of 
exhibiting  their  strength  of  soul,  and  apparently  it  mat- 
tered little  whether  they  had  children  or  not,  infants  natu- 
rally accompanying  their  mother.  Again,  two  rival  mili- 
tary organizations  of  this  tribe  indulged  in  licensed  wife- 
stealing  at  the  beginning  of  every  spring,  the  sole  qualifi- 
cation being  that  a  man  might  abduct  only  women  with 
whom  he  had  once  been  on  terms  of  intimacy.  In  such  a 
case  the  husband  was  without  redress  and  any  attempt  to 
resort  to  force  would  permanently  injure  his  social  prestige. 

Notwithstanding  such  usages,  it  is  important  not  to  con- 
found the  actual  frequency  of  divorce  with  its  theoretical 
possibility.  Even  among  the  Crow  a  chaste  woman  would 
be  exempt  under  the  accepted  restriction  of  kidnapping, 
while  others  would  be  liable  to  capture  only  if  married  to 
the  member  of  one  of  two  societies  and  if  a  former  mis- 
tress of  a  member  of  the  other.  The  public  'throwing  away^ 
of  wives  was  indeed  unlimited  by  such  rules,  yet  in  practice 
a  man  would  hesitate  a  long  while  before  divorcing  a  virtu- 
ous and   industrious  wife.     Here,  as  elsewhere,  practical 


THE  FAMILY  69 

considerations  interfere  very  largely  with  the  exercise  of  an 
abstract  prerogative.  A  Kirgiz  who  has  paid  an  enormous 
price  for  his  wife  very  rarely  expels  her,  regardless  of 
Mohammedan  sanction.  Similarly,  a  Kai  husband  is  un- 
willing to  surrender  his  wife  even  in  cases  of  elopement. 
He  has  bought  her  economic  services  and  demands  a  resti- 
tution of  her  person  or  the  equivalent  of  her  price;  and 
unless  her  lover  furnishes  the  requisite  property,  the  woman's 
kin  restore  her  to  her  purchaser-husband.  Even  where 
both  sexes  are  equally  free  to  separate  from  the  conjugal 
roof  it  does  not  follow  that  divorce  will  be  proportionately 
common.  In  the  Amazons  country  a  Witoto  woman  is 
never  blamed  for  leaving  her  husband  because  such  un- 
natural procedure  can  be  due  only  to  gross  maltreatment 
since  under  the  existing  conditions  a  woman  without  male 
protection  is  sure  to  die.  On  the  other  hand,  the  reproba- 
tion meted  out  to  a  husband  who  rids  himself  of  his  wife 
without  adequate  cause  acts  as  a  deterrent  on  the  other 
side. 

The  presence  or  absence  of  children,  though  sometimes 
disregarded,  usually  exerts  a  profound  influence  on  the  sta- 
bility of  marriage.  Barrenness  is  very  widely  accepted  as  an 
adequate  reason  for  the  repudiation  of  the  wife.  Con- 
versely, as  with  us,  children  tend  to  unite  parents.  This  is 
very  clearly  exemplified  by  Eskimo  conditions.  Before  the 
birth  of  children  divorce  is  countenanced  by  Greenland  so- 
ciety upon  the  slightest  provocation ;  Captain  Holm  en- 
countered a  woman  barely  turned  twenty  who  had  just 
separated  from  her  sixth  husband.  But  after  children  are 
born  the  conjugal  relationship  becomes  more  stable,  and  in 
long-continued  unions  there  is  loyal  attachment  and  even 
deep  affection.  The  latter  remark  holds  true  for  the 
Chukchi  and  according  to  my  own  observations  for  the 
Crow,  though  both  of  these  tribes  display  a  strong  tend- 
ency to  sever  the  bonds  of  marriage  for  meager  cause. 

Difficult  as  it  is  to  generalize,  we  shall  not  go  far  wrong 


70  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

in  stating  that  while  the  primitive  family  is  not  nearly  so 
loose  a  unit  as  the  theoretical  power  to  divorce  might  sug- 
gest it  is  nevertheless  on  the  whole  considerably  looser  than 
our  own,  though  its  instability  diminishes  markedly  after 
the  first  few  years  of  matrimony.^ 

Matrilocal  and  Patrilocal  Residence 

Rules  of  residence  exert  an  incalculable  influence  on  the 
life  of  the  family,  for  physical  propinquity  affects  not 
merely  sexual  love  but  all  human  sentiments.  A  newly 
married  couple  may  settle,  permanently  or  temporarily,  with 
the  wife's  or  the  husband's  family,  or  they  may  set  up  a 
household  of  their  own.  In  order  to  gain  a  provisional 
picture  of  the  conditions  resulting  from  these  factors,  we 
may  begin  by  comparing  the  family  life  of  two  tribes,  the 
patrilocal  Hupa  and  the  matrilocal  Pueblo  Indians. 

Among  the  Hupa  a  man  looked  for  a  mate  in  some  other 
settlement  and  regularly  took  his  wife  to  his  own  village. 
Hence  a  man  and  his  sons,  with  his  and  their  wives,  as  well 
as  the  unmarried  daughters,  were  united  in  one  locality, 
while  the  daughters  on  marriage  followed  their  husbands 
to  another  village.  Thus,  a  man  was  born,  lived  and  died 
in  the  same  place,  while  a  woman  spent  the  greater  part  of 
her  life  away  from  her  native  village.  This  rule  of  resi- 
dence inevitably  established  a  unilateral  grouping  of  kin: 
there  was  a  local  segregation  of  individuals  related  through 
their  fathers.  Nevertheless  this  paternal  line,  while  ob- 
jectively distinguished  from  other  kinsfolk  through  a  com- 
mon residence,  was  not  specifically  recognized  as  a  distinct 
unit  by  the  Hupa.  Thus  it  might  come  to  pass  that  a  man 
unable  to  pay  the  bride-price  was  obliged  to  serve  in  his 
father-in-law's  village  and  the  children  of  the  marriage 
belonged  to  the  wife's  people.  In  such  cases,  then,  the 
lapse  of  the  usual  patrilocal  rule  carried  with  it  a  quite  dif- 
ferent association  of  kindred  from  that  normally  produced. 


THE  FAMILY  71 

This  would  of  course  have  been  impossible  had  the  Hupa 
recognized  the  local  segregation  of  patrilineal  relatives  as 
not  merely  customary  but  as  reflecting  the  abstract  prin- 
ciple that  in  reckoning  kinship  there  should  be  a  uniform 
stressing  of  the  paternal  side. 

A  distinctive  alignment  of  kin  is  effected  by  the  matri- 
local  rule  of  the  Pueblo  Indians,  combined  as  it  is  with 
female  ownership  of  the  house.  The  nucleus  of  the  house- 
hold consists  of  the  maternal  grandmother,  the  mother  and 
maternal  aunts,  the  unmarried  brothers  of  the  mother,  and 
all  the  children  of  the  adult  women.  The  husband  of  a 
woman  lives  in  his  wife's  home  but  without  safe  tenure  of 
residence  rights :  in  case  of  divorce  he  must  leave  and  will 
return  to  the  house  of  his  childhood,  the  one  owned  by  his 
mother  or  one  of  his  sisters.  This  being  so,  a  man  con- 
tinues even  after  marriage  to  regard  his  mother's  rather 
than  his  wife's  house  as  his  home.  In  this  way  the  chil- 
dren of  any  family  are  brought  into  constant  association 
with  their  maternal  uncles,  whose  status  is  admirably  de- 
scribed by  Miss  Freire-Marreco :  "They  take  their  places 
at  meals  here  as  a  matter  of  course,  invite  visitors  to  eat, 
behave  as  hosts  and  masters  of  the  house ;  though  they  do 
not  (if  they  are  married)  contribute  anything  to  the  ma- 
terial support  of  our  household  since  they  have  to  supply 
corn,  meat  and  wood  to  their  wives'  homes."  They  keep 
their  tools  and  finery  under  the  maternal  roof  and  give 
advice  and  reproof  to  their  sisters'  children,  from  whom 
they  have  a  right  to  exact  obedience. 

Thus  we  find  that  the  rule  of  residence  may  produce  a 
stressing  of  one  side  of  the  family  and  in  so  far  forth  inter- 
fere with  the  bilateral  symmetry  of  family  relations. 
Among  the  Hupa  the  maternal  uncle,  living  as  he  does 
normally  in  another  village,  cannot  possibly  influence  the 
education  of  the  children,  which  will  inevitably  be  moulded 
by  patrilineal  influences.  In  the  Pueblo  household,  though 
the  father  continues  to  form  an  economic  unit  with  his  wife 


72  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

and  her  offspring,  his  authority  over  the  children  is  at  least 
shared  by  the  men  belonging  to  the  house  in  which  he  him- 
self lives  as  a  visitor.  The  status  of  the  spouse  himself  is 
thus  profoundly  affected.  Obviously  a  man  occupies  a  dif- 
ferent position  under  his  own  roof  as  regards  not  only 
parental  but  conjugal  status.  In  a  matrilocal  community 
he  cannot  be  master  of  his  wife's  person  in  an  absolute 
sense;  in  any  dispute  the  husband  has  tO'  reckon  with  her 
kin  and  is  liable  to  be  expelled.  Further,  matrilocal  resi- 
dence naturally  limits  polygyny  except  in  the  form  of  the 
sororate. 

However,  we  must  not  forget  that  matrilocal  and  patri- 
local  residence  represent  merely  the  extremes  of  a  series  of 
fluctuating  conditions.  The  Pueblo  Indians  are  in  the  fullest 
sense  matrilocal ;  not  so  perhaps  a  majority  of  the  people 
usually  so  classed.  Very  commonly  we  find  that  a  husband 
begins  married  life  with  his  parents-in-law,  fulfilling  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  the  functions  of  a  servant,  but  sets 
up  an  independent  household  at  a  later  stage,  say,  after  the 
birth  of  children.  This  applies  to  the  Hidatsa,  the  Ovambo 
of  South  Africa,  the  Khasi  of  Assam.  In  such  cases  the 
influence  of  the  maternal  kinsfolk  is  of  course  less  pro- 
nounced than  in  permanently  matrilocal  arrangements. 
Again,  there  may  be  no  definite  rule,  the  young  couple  living 
at  will  either  by  themselves  or  with  the  wife's  parents. 

In  order  to  understand  the  phenomena  involved  we  must 
resolutely  decline  to  rest  content  with  such  classificatory 
catchwords  as  'matrilocal'  and  'patrilocal'  and  study  the 
data  both  statistically  and  with  reference  to  correlated 
usages.  For  example,  in  northern  Siberia  both  the  Koryak 
and  the  Yukaghir  suitor  serve  for  the  bride,  but  the  former 
takes  her  to  his  own  family,  while  the  latter  resides  with 
his  ])arents-in-law.  There  thus  seems  to  be  in  this  respect 
a  clear-cut,  unliridgeable  distinction  between  these  tribes. 
Yet  the  demarcation  is  not  nearly  so  definite  as  a  bald  state- 
ment of  gross  results  would  suggest.     In   ii   out  of   i8l 


THE  FAMILY  73 

recorded  Koryak  marriages  the  son-in-law  settles  in  his 
father-in-law's  house,  viz.,  when  there  are  no  sons  in  the 
bride's  family  and  her  father  invites  him  to  take  the  place 
of  one.  On  the  other  hand,  among  the  Yukaghir  it  occa- 
sionally happens  ihat  two  households  exchange  daughters 
and  retain  their  sons.  Further,  a  bride's  father  who  has 
sons  may  waive  his  claims  on  the  husband's  residence  if 
he  is  an  only  son.  Finally,  it  is  customary  with  the  Yuka- 
ghir  that  the  youngest  son  should  stay  with  his  parents. 
The  Eskimo  data  are  equally  illuminating.  Here  we  en- 
counter local  differentiation :  the  Greenlanders  are  patri- 
local,  the  tribes  of  Labrador  and  Baffin  Land  at  least  begin 
with  matrilocal  marriage.  Indeed,  even  among  the  Central 
Eskimo  differences  have  been  observed,  some  communities 
following  the  patrilocal,  others  the  matrilocal  rule.  Since 
the  former  practice  on  the  whole  predominates,  we  may 
regard  it  as  the  more  fundamental  Eskimo  custom.  The 
question  then  arises  what  caused  the  deviations.  Here  we 
may  fall  back  upon  the  general  reason  that  when  a  suitor  is 
unable  to  furnish  adequate  compensation  for  his  bride  he 
naturally  becomes  her  parents'  servant.  More  specifically, 
we  learn  from  Holm  that  when  there  are  many  sons  in  a 
family  sometimes  only  the  older  ones  bring  their  brides 
under  the  paternal  roof,  while  their  younger  brothers  go  to 
reside  with  their  parents-in-law. 

By  substituting  the  whole  range  of  observed  data  for  the 
misleading  catchwords,  we  gain  a  better  insight  into  the 
nature  of  matrilocal  and  patrilocal  residence,  nay,  we  are 
able  to  picture  the  processes  that  might  transform  the  rele- 
vant marriage  customs  of  a  tribe.  General  impoverishment 
could  at  any  time  have  made  the  patrilocal  Hupa  matrilocal 
by  standardizing  their  now  anomalous  makeshift.  Con- 
trariwise Professor  Kroeber  has  shown  that  even  in  the 
generally  matrilocal  communities  of  the  Pueblo  area  signifi- 
cant deviations  develop.  Incompatibility  between  a  man 
and  his  wife's  housemates  sometimes  leads  Zufii  spouses  to 


74  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

snap  their  fingers  at  the  traditional  rule  and  a  wife  will 
follow  her  husband  to  his  mother's  home.  This  migration 
may  produce  strange  consequences,  for  since  the  husband  may 
not  have  any  sisters  or  only  childless  ones  and  the 
dwelling  is  always  owned  by  women  a  house  will  thus  come 
to  pass  from  the  possession  of  one  family  into  that  of 
another. 

To  sum  up.  The  mode  of  residence  must  in  any  indi- 
vidual case  produce  a  profound  influence  on  family  life 
because  the  alignment  of  kin,  the  status  of  the  spouses  and 
the  relations  of  the  children  to  maternal  and  paternal  rela- 
tives will  vary  with  the  matrilocal  and  patrilocal  rule.  But 
we  must  remember  that  it  makes  all  the  difference  in  the 
world  whether  the  rule  is  followed  throughout  married  life 
or  only  for  a  limited  period  at  its  commencement ;  whether 
the  rule  is  nearly  absolute  or  admits  of  modification ;  and 
what  are  the  motives  that  operate  in  anomalous  cases  and 
may  under  proper  conditions  rise  to  ascendancy.^ 

Sexual  Division  of  Labor 

It  is  a  commonplace  of  modern  sociology  that  increasing 
economic  independence  has  transformed  the  status  of  woman 
and  thereby  the  character  of  the  family.  Accordingly,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  the  sexual  division  of  labor  should  color 
the  family  life  of  simpler  cultures.  This  division  is  very 
largely  conventional,  i.e..  in  no  way  connected  with  the 
physiological  characteristics  of  the  sexes,  as  may  often  be 
proved  by  contrasting  the  regulations  of  different  and  even 
neighboring  tribes.  Thus,  the  Southern  Bantu  rigorously 
exclude  women  from  their  herds,  while  the  Hottentot  women 
regularly  milk  the  cows. 

Contrary  to  the  widespread  popular  notion  that  primitive 
woman  is  invariably  a  drudge,  we  find  on  the  whole  a  rather 
equitable  assignment  of  tasks.  Among  hunting  tribes  the 
wife  adds  to  the  game  brought  by  her  husband  wild  roots, 


THE  FAMILY  75 

berries,  and  shell-fish.  At  a  higher  level  man  remains  a 
hunter,  while  woman  takes  the  important  step  of  not  merely 
gathering  but  planting  and  harvesting  seeds.  In  technical 
ethnologic  parlance  it  is  customary  to  distinguish  between 
agriculture  or  plough-husbandry  and  horticulture  or  tillage 
with  more  primitive  implements.  In  Africa  and  in  most 
horticultural  American  and  Oceanian  tribes,  gardening  with 
the  hoe  is  w^oman's  distinctive  economic  employment,  as 
Eduard  Hahn  was  probably  the  first  to  point  out.  On  the 
other  hapd,  the  domestication  of  such  animals  as  the  ox 
was  undoubtedly  achieved  by  men.  Generally  speaking, 
the  care  of  the  herds  has  remained  in  the  hands  of  men, 
who  have  sometimes  jealously  guarded  their  prerogatives. 
The  Bantu  taboo  against  women's  entering  a  corral  has 
been  mentioned,  and  the  Toda  go  so  far  as  not  to  permit 
their  wives  to  cook  food  of  which  milk  is  an  ingredient. 
In  connection  with  the  domestication  of  the  ox  men  also 
developed  the  use  of  the  plough  in  agriculture,  thus  dimin- 
ishing the  relative  importance  of  woman's  contribution  to 
the  larder. 

In  addition  to  economic  activities  we  must  consider  in- 
dustrial occupations.  Here  there  is,  as  already  suggested,  a 
great  deal  of  variation  even  within  the  same  general  region. 
For  example,  with  most  of  the  North  American  aborigines 
the  dressing  of  skins  is  reckoned  a  distinctively  feminine 
task,  but  in  the  Southwest  this  work  is  done  by  the  men. 
In  northern  Arizona  the  Hopi  men  do  all  the  spinning  and 
weaving,  while  these  tasks  are  invariably  performed  by 
women  among  the  neighboring  Navaho.  With  respect  to 
primitive  ceramics  we  are  indebted  to  Dr.  Laufer  for  a 
generalization  comparable  to  Halm's :  wherever  earthen- 
ware is  manufactured  by  hand,  it  is  produced  by  the  women, 
while  the  wheel-turned  pottery  is  made  by  the  men. 

The  position  of  woman  in  society  forms  so  important  a 
problem  that  a  special  chapter  will  be  devoted  to  it.  In  the 
present  connection  it  suffices  to  note  that  each  people  has  its 


76  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

traditional  conceptions  of  masculine  and  feminine  employ- 
ment and  that  differences  in  this  regard  cannot  fail  to 
affect  the  course  of  the  family  life.  A  polygynous  Thonga 
becomes  a  parasite  supported  by  his  gardener-wives ;  a 
Kirgiz  wife  performs  the  household  tasks,  while  the  hus- 
band not  merely  tends  the  herds  but  also  supplies  firewood, 
tills  the  soil,  and  manufactures  all  household  vessels ;  the 
Toda  woman  has  hardly  any  duties  besides  pounding  and 
sifting  grain,  cleaning  the  hut  and  decorating  clothing.  It 
is  not  a  question  of  woman's  theoretical  status,  for  that  is 
doubtless  lowest  among  the  Mohammedanized  Kirgiz,  and 
probably  lower  among  the  Toda  than  with  the  Thonga ;  it 
is  simply  a  question  of  what  labors  are  conventionally  allot- 
ted to  each  sex.  Dr.  Laufer  has  forcibly  pointed  out  how 
at  a  higher  level  of  civilization  "the  forms  of  Chinese  fam- 
ily life  and  the  psychical  relations  of  the  members"  are 
radically  different  from  our  own  because  woman  never 
superintends  nor  even  approaches  the  kitchen,  which  is  al- 
w^ays  far  removed  from  the  center  of  the  house  and  thus 
never  serves  as  a  family  rallying-point.* 

Segregation  of  Unmarried 

Among  the  customs  often  giving  to  primitive  family  life 
a  very  peculiar  cast  as  compared  with  ours  is  the  segrega- 
tion of  unmarried  young  men  and  women  from  the  re- 
mainder of  the  community,  frequently  at  adolescence,  some- 
times even  at  an  earlier  period.  Thus,  among  the  Dravid- 
ians  of  southern  India  the  youths  no  longer  sleep  with  their 
parents  but  in  a  separate  club  house,  and  the  girls  in  a  dor- 
mitory of  their  own,  superintended  by  a  matron.  Every 
Kariera  camp  is  divided  into  the  married  people's  and  the 
bachelors'  camp,  the  latter  including  widowers,  the  former 
single  women  and  widows.  The  M^asai  usage  has  already 
been  descril)ed  by  which  the  bachelor  braves  reside  in  a 
special  kraal  with  the  immature  young  girls,  while  all  mar- 
ried men  have  settlements  of  their  own, 


THE  FAMILY  -jy 

These  customs  introduce  us  to  the  principle  of  dividing  a 
community  on  the  l)asis  of  age,  with  or  without  a  farther 
recognition  of  a  sexual  segregation.  The  relevant  prob- 
lems of  distribution  and  interpretation  will  receive  detailed 
discussion.  Suffice  it  for  the  present  to  call  attention  to 
the  inevitable  rending  asunder  or  at  least  serious  weaken- 
ing of  the  family  ties  where  the  adolescent  children  are 
separated  from  their  parents  by  these  fixed  institutions.^ 

Sexual  Segregation 

Still  more  drastic  in  its  effects  on  the  family  as  a  social 
unit  is  the  separation  of  husband  and  wife  either  by  the 
segregation  of  men  in  a  club  house  of  their  own  or  by  ex- 
clusion of  the  women  from  those  forms  of  public  activity 
which  especially  engross  the  attention  of  the  men.  This, 
too,  is  a  subject  for  ampler  treatment  further  on,  but  one 
or  two  characteristic  illustrations  must  be  cited  here  by  way 
of  anticipation. 

Among  the  Hupa  the  women  lived  in  the  family  house, 
where  their  husbands  came  to  eat  meals  before  and  after 
their  daily  tasks.  In  the  evening  the  men  retired  to  the 
sweathouse,  which  served  not  only  as  a  Turkish  bath  and 
club  but  as  a  dormitory  as  well.  This,  however,  does  not 
compare  with  the  isolation  of  the  women  in  parts  of  Melan- 
esia, such  as  the  Banks  Islands,  where  the  men  and  indeed 
the  adolescent  boys  not  merely  sleep  but  eat  apart  from  the 
women,  membership  into  the  men's  club  being  early  pur- 
chased to  shorten  the  ignominy  of  having  to  feed  with  the 
women.  Finally  may  be  mentioned  the  well-nigh  universal 
Australian  custom  of  barring  women  from  attendance  at 
those  sacred  rites  about  which  most  of  masculine  thought 
revolves  in  its  more  serious  moments,'^ 

Adoption 

The  verv  constitution  of  the  family  may  be  altered  bv 
the  legal  fiction  through  which  parents  rear  as  their  own 


78  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

the  children  of  another  couple.  In  many  cases  the  children 
are  related  to  their  foster  parents,  but  this  is  by  no  means 
prerequisite.  A  comm.on  motive  for  adoption  is  lack  of 
issue.  Thus,  a  Chukchi  couple  without  offspring  will  adopt 
the  child,  preferably  the  son,  of  a  relative,  and  the  boy 
then  becomes  the  principal  heir.  The  sentimental  relation- 
ship comes  to  approach  very  closely  that  based  on  the  natu- 
ral tie.  With  the  Crow  Indians  it  is  common  for  men  and 
women  to  adopt  a  sibling's  child,  and  if  anything  there  was 
exaggerated  demonstration  of  affection  as  if  to  compensate 
for  the  subconscious  feeling  that  after  all  the  tie  was  fac- 
titious. But  probably  nowhere  is  adoption  so  prevalent  as 
in  Murray  Island  of  the  Eastern  Torres  Straits  group, 
where  children  for  no  manifest  reason  are  adopted  even 
before  birth  and  brought  up  entirely  as  members  of  the 
adoptive  parent,  often  remaining  in  ignorance  of  their  real 
parentage  till  adult  life  or  even  till  death.'' 

Summary 

Although  the  character  of  the  primitive  family  is  appre- 
ciably altered  by  the  usages  sketched  above,  these  modifica- 
tions do  not  invade  the  bilateral  principle.  A  man  may 
spend  the  major  part  of  his  working  and  sleeping  hours 
away  from  his  wife,  but  for  all  that  he  is  linked  to  her  by 
the  common  interest  in  the  children  of  the  household,  really 
or  putatively  his  own,  and  by  their  economic  and  industrial 
partnership ;  and  similar  considerations  apply  to  the  other 
conditions  mentioned,  which  often  strangely  affect  the 
dynamics  of  family  life  from  a  Caucasian  point  of  view. 
In  short,  the  bilateral  family  is  none  the  less  an  absolutely 
universal  unit  of  human  society. 

References 

*  Lowie,  1917  (a)  :  40  seq.,  51.  Junod:  i,  44,  212,  226,  253, 
262.  Reports,  v:  144  seq.  Keysser:  45,85.  Roth,  1906:  6. 
Spencer  and  Gillen,  1899:  18.  Malinowski :  158-167.  Brown: 
147.     Sj)ielh :   191. 


THE  FAMILY  79 

^Lowie,  1912:  223;  id.,  1913 :  169.  Keysser:  86.  Whif- 
fen:   165.    Thalbitzer:  65,72.    Bogoras :  596. 

'  Goddard,  1903  :  56-58.  Freire-Marreco  :  269-287.  Lowie, 
1917  (a):  46.  Schinz:  304,  311.  Gurdon :  78.  Jochelson, 
1908:  744;  id.,  1910:  92.  Cranz :  i,  215  seq.  Boas,  1888: 
579.  Thalbitzer:  59.  Murdoch:  410.  Kroeber,  1917  (a): 
105. 

*  Hahn.  Rivers,  1906:  567.  Laufer,  1917:  148;  id.,  in 
Amer.  Anth.,  1918:   89.     Radloff:  462. 

^Baden-Powell:   172.    Brown:   147. 

^  Goddard,  1903:    57.     Rivers,  1914  (b)  :    i,  63. 

^Bogoras:   556.    Lowie,  1912:   219.    Reports,  vi:   64,  177. 


CHAPTER    V 


KINSHIP     USAGES 


IN  PROVING  the  bilateral  character  of  the  family,  I 
have  called  attention  to  the  social  relations  that  ob- 
tain between  an  individual  and  the  relatives  on  both  his 
father's  and  his  mother's  side.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  primi- 
tive law  usually  goes  much  further  and  establishes  definite 
functions  for  every  relationship  not  only  by  blood  but  by 
marriage  as  well.  In  our  society  no  fixed  conduct  is  pre- 
scribed tow^ards  a  maternal  uncle  or  a  sister's  son  or  the 
husband  of  a  father's  sister.  In  primitive  communities, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  specific  mode  of  behavior  may  be 
rigidly  determined  for  each  and  every  possible  form  of 
relationship.  From  the  point  of  view  of  any  individual 
this  means  that  his  tribesmen  are  classified  into  certain  cate- 
gories, each  one  of  which  implies  an  altogether  special  set 
of  social  rules  to  be  observed  by  him.  He  is  bound  to  render 
services  to  an  individual  of  one  class;  with  a  member  of 
another  he  may  jest  and  take  liberties:  with  persons  of  a 
third  category  he  must  have  nothing  to  do  except  through 
intermediaries ;  and  so  forth.  Proximity  of  relationship 
may  or  may  not  count :  usually,  as  Mr.  Brown  has  explained 
for  the  Kariera,  a  savage  owes  the  same  type  of  conduct  to 
a  more  remote  as  to  a  closer  kinsman  addressed  by  the  same 
relationship  term,  but  the  intensity  of  the  obligation  is 
greater  for  the  nearer  relationship.  As  this  author  further 
remarks,  a  native  may  be  at  a  complete  loss  how  to  treat  a 
stranger  who  falls  outside  of  the  established  rubrics.  What 
most  frequently  happens  is  that  by  a  legal  fiction,  or  it  may 

80 


KINSHIP  USAGES  8i 

be  by  marriage  with  a  meml^er  of  the  community,  the  new 
arrival  comes  to  occupy  a  definite  status.  Thus,  in  a  Plains 
Indian  myth  a  young  boy  finds  a  strange  girl  whom  he 
adopts  as  his  sister;  automatically  she  1>ecomes  the  sister  of 
his  brothers,  who  accordingly  are  prohibited  from  marrying 
her.  In  real  life  these  implications  are  consistently  carried 
out,  so  that  the  stranger  would  be  a  daughter  to  her  adop- 
ters' parents,  a  sister-in-law  to  their  wives,  and  so  forth. 
In  short,  she  would  be  classified  for  the  entire  family  circle 
and  her  social  relations  w^ould  be  regulated  thereby. 

It  is  largely  the  character  of  these  kinship  usages  that  dif- 
ferentiates family  life  among  different  tribes  and  divides 
its  operations  in  primitive  society  from  those  of  our  own; 
and  they  are  so  numerous  and  diversified  that  a  special  chap- 
ter must  be  devoted  to  the  matter.  They  involve  both  duties 
to  relatives  and  claims  on  their  help  and  property ;  both 
strict  prohibitions  as  to  intercourse  and  sanctions  of  ex- 
travagant forms  of  intercourse.  The  systematic  study  of 
the  subject,  which  owes  much  to  the  energy  of  Dr.  Rivers, 
is  still  in  its  infancy;  yet  something  of  value  may  already 
be  extracted  from  the  vast  array  of  detail. 

Mother's  and  Father's  Kin 

Certain  peculiar  relations  with  the  maternal  and  paternal 
kin  must  profoundly  affect  social  intercourse.  For  example, 
where  a  mother's  younger  sister  is  likely  to  become  the 
father's  second  wife  through  the  sororate,  the  initial  atti- 
tude of  the  children  towards  her  is  bound  to  be  influenced 
by  the  circumstance,  and  vice  versa.  Correspondingly,  the 
levirate  creates  a  bond  between  a  father's  brother  and  his 
brother's  son  to  which  there  can  be  nothing  analogous  in 
civilized  society.  There  are  functions  connected  with  other 
maternal  and  paternal  relatives  equally  far-reaching  in  their 
effects. 

Ethnologists  describe  under  the  heading  of  avimcula^c 


82  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

the  customs  regulating  in  an  altogether  special  way  the  re- 
lations of  a  nephew  to  his  maternal  uncle.  These  relations 
often  have  humorous  features  to  which  attention  will  be 
paid  later.  In  their  more  serious  aspect  they  involve  an 
unusual  authority  on  the  uncle's  part  and  the  inheritance  of 
property  not  by  the  son  but  by  the  sister's  son.  Some  ex- 
amples have  already  been  furnished ;  the  Kai  suitor  must 
obtain  the  consent  of  the  girl's  maternal  uncle,  and  in  the 
inheritance  of  Thonga  widows  it  has  been  seen  that  a 
nephew  may  acquire  the  wife  of  his  mother's  brother. 
Phenomena  of  this  sort  are  common.  Among  the  Winne- 
bago of  Wisconsin,  Dr.  Radin  informs  us,  the  nephew  acts 
as  a  servant  to  his  mother's  brother  and  formerly  accom- 
panied him  to  battle  as  a  sort  of  squire.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  was  permitted  to  take  liberties  expressly  forbidden  with 
his  paternal  uncle,  e.g.,  he  might  appropriate  his  uncle's 
belongings.  Among  the  Omaha  the  maternal  uncle  had  full 
control  of  orphaned  children  and  even  during  the  parents' 
lifetime  showed  a  parent's  zeal  in  defending  them  or  aveng- 
ing an  injury  to  which  they  were  subjected.  In  the  Hopi 
household  the  mother's  brother  instructs  the  children  in 
their  ceremonial  duties  and  in  the  traditional  lore.  On  the 
coast  of  British  Columbia  the  nephew  goes  to  live  with  his 
maternal  uncle,  works  for  him,  marries  his  daughter  and 
becomes  his  legal  heir.  From  Oceania  similar  customs  are 
reported.  The  Torres  Straits  Islander  obeyed  his  mother's 
brother  more  readily  than  his  father,  and  it  was  his  mother's 
eldest  brother  that  guarded  him  at  his  initiation  into  the 
status  of  manhood.  Here,  as  among  the  Winnebago,  a  man 
might  take  anything  belonging  to  his  maternal  uncle.  This 
latter  feature  is  carried  to  excessive  lengths  by  the  Fijians. 
In  Africa  the  avunculate  is  also  fairly  common.  Among  the 
Makonde  of  East  Africa  the  maternal  uncle  must  consent 
to  his  niece's  marriage  and  receives  part  of  the  bride-price, 
while  it  is  the  sister's  son  that  is  entitled  to  a  man's  legacy. 
In  Upper  Guinea  the  Anglo-Ewe  grant  to  a  maternal  uncle 


KINSHIP  USAGES  83 

greater  authority  over  the  children  than  to  their  father.  The 
nephew,  being  a  man's  heir-apparent,  must  work  for  him 
and  accompany  his  uncle  on  his  travels.  Among  the  prob- 
ably Hamitic  Nandi  of  East  Africa  the  mother's  brother 
must  consent  before  a  boy  is  circumcised;  he  is  entitled  to 
a  cow  when  his  nephew  has  made  a  successful  raid;  and 
nothing  seems  more  terrible  than  to  incur  his  wrath. 

That  some  of  these  resemblances  can  hardly  be  due  to 
mere  chance,  is  obvious ;  but  the  avunculate  is  so  closely 
bound  up  with  certain  other  phenomena  of  primitive  life 
not  yet  described  that  a  discussion  of  its  meaning  must  be 
postponed.  What  we  are  here  interested  in  is  the  unex- 
pected shifting  of  what  we  consider  paternal  authority  on 
avuncular  shoulders  and  the  equally  remarkable  tendency 
to  make  a  nephew  his  maternal  uncle's  companion  and  heir. 
That  farnily  life  must  in  large  measure  assume  a  different 
aspect  under  such  conditions,  requires  no  proof. 

There  are  usages  equally  definite  connected  with  the  pa- 
ternal kin.  To  Dr.  Rivers  we  are  indebted  for  data  on  the 
extraordinary  importance  assumed  in  Oceanian  communities 
by  the  father's  sister.  In  the  Banks  Islands  a  man  not  only 
treats  his  maternal  aunt  with  great  respect,  greater  than 
that  accorded  his  mother,  but  it  is  she  who  arranges  his 
marriage  and  may  definitively  veto  a  projected  match.  A 
father's  sister  may  take  her  nephew's  property  so  far  as  he 
has  derived  it  from  her  brother,  and  he  may  appropriate 
any  of  her  possessions.  Her  power  to  forbid  or  effect  mar- 
riage is  common  in  Melanesia  and  even  extends  to  Poly- 
nesian Tonga,  where  this  relative  is  viewed  with  greater 
veneration  than  father  and  paternal  uncle.  Concerning 
this  kinswoman  among  the  Thonga  of  South  Africa  we  hear 
little,  but  she  is  treated  with  great  respect,  while  among  the 
Toda  she  bestows  a  name  on  a  newborn  girl.  In  Hopiland 
this  function  is  regularly  assumed  for  all  children  by  the 
paternal  grandmother.  The  Crow  have  a  variety  of  usages 
associated  with  the  father's  siblings  and  his  more  remote 


84  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

kindred  or  even  strangers  figuring  as  his  brothers  and  sis- 
ters. All  these  are  viewed  with  respect ;  a  person  would  not 
walk  in  front  of  them,  regardless  of  their  age  or  sex.  They 
were  preeminently  the  individuals  to  receive  gifts  when  the 
nephew  had  captured  booty  from  the  enemy,  and  in  turn  the 
father's  brother  would  chant  his  nephew's  praises  through- 
out the  camp.  Names  of  honor  were  derived  from  a  pater- 
nal kinsman,  and  nicknames  too  were  based  on  his  rather 
than  one's  own  deeds.  In  addition  to  the  foregoing  the 
related  Hidatsa  had  the  rule  that  a  person's  funeral  must 
be  conducted  by  the  paternal  kindred. 

Vitally  as  these  rules  respecting  one's  attitude  toward 
blood  kin  affect  social  relations,  they  are  eclipsed  by  equally 
significant  and  more  spectacular  regulations  of  l3ehavior  to- 
wards the  relatives  by  marriage,  notably  those  connected 
with  a  person's  parents-in-law/ 

Parent-in-Law  Taboos 

Among  a  great  many  primitive  peoples  the  husband,  and 
more  rarely  the  wife,  assumes  an  altogether  peculiar  social 
relationship  with  regard  to  the  parents-in-law.  There  is 
either  complete  rupture  of  all  direct  intercourse  with  one 
or  both  of  them,  or  intercourse  is  hedged  about  with  restric- 
tions that  may  or  may  not  be  relaxed  either  with  prolonged 
matrimony  or  through  the  performance  of  a  special  act. 
A  series  of  concrete  statements  will  make  the  matter  clear. 

A  Yukaghir  daughter-in-law  must  not  look  into  the  face 
of  her  father-in-law  or  husband's  elder  brother,  nor  must  a 
son-in-law  look  into  his  father-in-law's  or  mother-in- 
law's  face.  In  giving  orders  to  the  son-in-law,  who 
it  must  be  recollected  lives  with  his  wife's  family, 
the  father-in-law  speaks  imj^ersonally  or  by  hints.  A 
daughter-in-law  must  not  uncover  her  body  before  her 
husband's  father  and  vice  versa,  and  a  similar  rule  holds 
for  the  wife  and  her  husband's  elder  brother.     Other  Si- 


KINSHIP  USAGES  85 

berian  tribes  possess  almost  identical  customs.  No  married 
Ostyak  woman  may  appear  before  her  father-in-law,  nor 
the  bridegroom  before  his  mother-in-law  until  he  has  chil- 
dren; at  a  chance  meeting  the  face  is  muflled,  and  a  woman 
must  continue  to  cover  it  throughout  her  lifetime.  Before 
the  full  payment  of  the  bride-price  the  bridegroom  visiting 
his  sweetheart  must  turn  his  back  or  cover  his  face  if  he 
accidentally  meets  her  father.  The  Buryat  wife  never  ad- 
dresses either  parent-in-law  by  name,  her  face  must  never 
be  uncovered  in  the  presence  of  her  husband's  father  or 
elder  kinsman,  she  must  not  remove  her  dress  in  their 
presence,  nor  sleep  in  the  same  tent  or  cross  their  path  or 
ride  in  the  same  wagon.  They,  on  the  other  hand,  must 
not  dress  or  undress  in  her  presence  or  utter  obscene  lan- 
guage before  her  and  must  signal  their  approach  so  as  to 
permit  a  decorous  adjustment  of  her  dress.  The  Kalmuk 
observe  similar  restrictions,  as  do  the  Altaian  Turks  and 
the  Kirgiz.  The  Kirgiz  woman  does  not  look  intO'  the  face 
of  her  husband's  father  or  elder  kinsman  and  must  never 
utter  their  names  even  if  these  contain  designations  of  com- 
mon objects.  There  is  an  anecdote  of  a  Kirgiz  woman  who 
was  prohibited  from  employing  the  usual  words  for  lamb, 
wolf,  water  and  rushes  because  they  formed  part  of  the 
names  of  her  relatives  by  marriage.  Accordingly,  in  tell- 
ing her  husband  of  a  wolf  carrying  off  a  lamb  through  the 
rushes  on  the  other  side  of  the  water,  she  was  obliged  to 
paraphrase :  "Look  yonder,  the  howling  one  is  carrying  the 
bleating  one's  young  through  the  rustling  ones  on  the  other 
side  of  the  glistening  one !" 

That  a  group  of  tribes  occupying  adjacent  territories  in 
Siberia  and  with  intimate  cultural  relations  should  share 
this  set  of  taboos,  is  at  once  intelligible  through  diffusion. 
But  what  shall  we  say  when  similar  usages  turn  up  in  dis- 
tant Ceylon?  There  no  Vedda  may  so  much  as  approach, 
let  alone,  touch  his  wife's  mother.  If  he  meets  her  in  the 
iungle,  he  moves  aside  off  the  track.     He  will  not  enter  a 


86  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

rock-shelter  occupied  by  her  alone  nor  take  food  from  her 
except  through  a  third  party  nor  speak  to  her  save  in  the 
presence  of  others.  Quite  similar  taboos  obtain  between  a 
man  and  his  son's  wife.  Furthermore,  all  these  restricted 
relatives  avoid  each  other's  names,  using  kinship  terms  in- 
stead. 

But  this  particular  type  of  avoidance  extends  its  sway 
over  the  four  corners  of  the  globe.  In  the  Banks  Islands, 
Melanesia,  the  son-in-law  must  not  utter  the  name  of  either 
parent-in-law  nor  the  daughter-in-law  that  of  her  husband's 
father ;  indeed,  any  word  entering  their  names  is  discarded 
from  the  vocabulary  to  be  supplemented  by  makeshift  ex- 
pressions. Further,  a  man  w'\\\  not  jest  with  his  wife's 
father,  or  address  him  familiarly,  or  take  anything  from 
above  his  head.  As  for  the  mother-in-law,  he  will  not  even 
enter  a  house  if  she  is  near  the  door,  and  if  he  meets  her  in 
the  bush  he  will  turn  of¥  the  path  and  make  a  detour  to 
avoid  her.  She,  on  the  other  hand,  must  not  pass  a  tree  he 
has  climbed,  nor  drink  water  from  any  bamboo  he  has  car- 
ried, and  if  she  requires  his  assistance  she  must  ask  for  it 
through  her  daughter.  Transgression  of  these  rules  is 
expiated  by  money  payments.  Similar  regulations  apply 
to  the  relationship  between  a  woman  and  her  father-in-law. 

Passing  to  other  parts  of  Oceania,  we  find  that  the  Bukaua 
of  Huon  Gulf,  New  Guinea,  do  not  permit  parents-in-law 
and  sons-in-law  to  touch  each  other  or  utter  each  other's 
names.  The  father-in-law  must  cover  his  face  if  he  eats 
before  his  son-in-law  ;  should  the  latter  see  his  mouth  open, 
the  father-in-law  feels  ashamed  and  runs  into  the  wood. 
If  the  older  desires  to  give  the  younger  man  a  present  of 
betel  lime,  he  may  not  place  it  in  his  hand  but  deposits  it  on 
a  leaf.  In  the  Western  Torres  Straits  a  person  of  either 
sex  never  mentions  the  name  of  the  parents-in-law ;  a  man 
holds  no  conversation  with  them  except  through  his  wife 
or  in  cases  of  absolute  necessity,  when  he  will  speak  very 
little  and  in  a  low  voice;  a  woman  does  not  give  food  di- 


KINSHIP  USAGES  87 

rectly  to  her  father-in-law  but  only  through  her  mother- 
in-law. 

Probably  throughout  Australia  parallel  restrictions  occur. 
Mother-in-law  and  son-in-law  must  avoid  each  other  and 
in  some  localities  she  is  not  even  supposed  to  hear  his  name 
spoken.  Accidental  contact  between  the  two  may  lead  to 
divorce  of  the  young  couple;  infraction  of  the  taboo  might 
lead  to  the  man's  banishment  and  in  some  tribes  even  the 
death  penalty  was  inflicted.  Among  the  Kariera  a  hut  or 
brush  is  interposed  between  them  as  a  precaution  against  a 
man's  looking  at  the  wife's  mother,  but  the  taboo  breaks 
down  with  the  lapse  of  years.  Here  and  probably  in  Aus- 
tralia generally  a  woman  need  not  shun  her  father-in-law. 

No  less  striking  are  the  parallels  from  Africa.  A  Zulu 
covers  his  face  with  his  shield  if  he  accidentally  comes  upon 
his  mother-in-law,  throws  away  the  mouthful  he  is  eating  if 
she  chances  to  pass  by,  and  must  never  pronounce  her  name. 
With  the  passing  of  time,  however,  the  severity  of  these 
rules  is  considerably  mitigated.  Similar  customs  are  cited 
by  Frazer  for  various  Bantu  tribes  and  also  for  the  Masai. 
Among  the  West  Africans  they  do  not  seem  to  flourish, 
though  a  Matse-Ewe  regulation  prohibits  parents-in-law 
from  eating  in  the  son-in-law's  house  and  vice  versa,  an  in- 
fringement being  reckoned  disgraceful  and  regarded  as  pre- 
venting the  birth  of  children. 

American  examples  abound.  A  Crow  must  not  speak 
to  his  wife's  parents  and  vice  versa.  The  father-in-law 
taboo  is  less  exacting,  but  the  mother-in-law  rule  is  still 
rigidly  observed.  A  man  may  speak  to  his  wife's  mother 
only  through  his  wife  and  he  must  not  pronounce  her  name 
nor  any  word  forming  part  of  it.  The  latter  taboo  involves 
the  use  of  circumlocution,  as  among  the  Assiniboin,  where 
a  knife  may  have  to  be  referred  to  as  "something  sharp"  and 
a  horse  as  "the  animal  we  ride."  The  father-in-law's  name 
may  be  pronounced  but  to  do  so  is  not  considered  polite.  It 
was  possible  in  former  years  to  remove  the  taboo  by  the 


88  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

formal  presentation  of  a  substantial  gift  to  the  parents-in- 
law  ;  among  the  Hidatsa  and  Mandan  by  bringing  them  an 
enemy's  scalp.  Further,  a  Crow  mother-in-law  may  remove 
all  restrictions  after  her  daughter's  death  by  addressing  her 
son-in-law  as  her  son.  There  is  no  corresponding  taboo 
between  a  woman  and  her  father-in-law  among  the  Crow 
and  Hidatsa,  but  it  occurs  among  the  Dakota,  Assiniboin, 
Kiowa,  Arapaho,  and  Omaha  in  conjunction  with  the  taboo 
between  son-  and  mother-in-law. 

Contrary  to  what  might  be  supposed,  wherever  we  obtain 
data  as  to  the  subjective  aspect  of  avoidance,  there  is  no 
suggestion  of  hostility  between  the  tabooed  relatives,  the 
stress  being  entirely  on  the  mutual  respect  shown.  An 
Hidatsa  interpreter  had  married  a  woman  from  the  Arikara 
tribe,  which  does  not  observe  these  customs.  Accordingly, 
his  Hidatsa  friends  once  saw  his  mother-in-law  speaking  to 
him  and  exclaimed  in  horror,  "What's  the  matter  with  your 
mother-in-law,  Joe?  She  does  not  seem  to  have  any  respect 
for  you  at  all !" 

From  the  extremely  wide  range  of  parent-in-law  avoid- 
ance, the  absolute  universality  of  these  rules  might  be  con- 
jectured on  the  ground  that  where  unrecorded  the  customs 
have  merely  eluded  notice.  It  is  true  that  a  mere  absence 
of  statement  even  in  otherwise  excellent  accounts  cannot  be 
taken  as  decisive  on  this  subject.  However,  in  North  Amer- 
ica the  distribution  of  the  taboo  has  been  systematically 
investigated  of  late  years,  and  it  appears  conclusively  that 
a  considerable  number  of  tribes  completely  lack  the  custom. 
Among  these  are  the  Nootka,  the  Arikara,  Zufii,  Hopi,  vari- 
ous Plateau  Shoshoneans,  and  a  number  of  Californian  peo- 
ples. On  the  other  hand,  avoidance  flourishes  among  the 
Plains  Indians  and  occurs  in  the  Southeast,  among  the 
Southwestern  nomads,  a  number  of  Californian  tribes,  and 
in  northern  British  Columbia. 

The  first  problem  that  presents  itself  for  solution  is  one 
of  distribution.     How  do  custcK.us  so  similar  happen  to  be 


KINSHIP  USAGES  89 

so  widely  spread  ?  That  we  are  to  some  extent  dealing  with 
diffusion  cannot  be  questioned  for  a  moment.  The  Siberian 
data,  e.g.,  display  so  far-reaching  a  resemblance  in  detail 
that  a  single  source  of  origin  is  the  only  possible  assumption. 
Again,  when  we  tind  that  of  all  the  Shoshonean  peoples  of 
the  Plateau  area  only  those  in  contact  with  the  Northern 
Plains  tribes  practise  the  taboo,  the  inference  is  sound  that 
they  have  borrowed  it  from  their  neighbors.  But  how  shall 
we  interpret  the  similarity  of  the  name  taboo  of  the  Kirgiz 
of  Central  Asia  and  the  Assiniboin  of  Montana,  with  con- 
sequent use  of  paraphrase  for  words  of  everyday  speech  ? 
To  my  mind,  this  case  is  instructive  in  proving  that  resem- 
blances may  develop  independently.  For  while  the  taboo 
itself  is  marvelously  similar,  it  obtains  between  different 
individuals.  With  the  Kirgiz  it  is  the  daughter-in-law  that 
must  paraphrase  words  in  her  father-in-law's  name;  among 
the  Assiniboin  it  is  the  son-in-law  who  must  not  utter  the 
father-in-law's  name.  But  so  far  as  the  possibility  of  bor- 
rowing goes,  this  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world. 
For  by  what  mechanism  can  usages  of  this  type  be  supposed 
to  be  disseminated?  They  surely  are  not  imposed  by  a 
conquering  chief  on  a  vanquished  tribe  in  the  way  in  which 
the  Chinese  were  made  to  wear  pigtails.  Further,  they  are 
of  far  too  intimate  and  recondite  a  character  to  be  under- 
stood by  a  random  visitor ;  such  a  one  might  note  that  cer- 
tain of  his  hosts  shun  one  another  without  the  faintest 
notion  of  their  relationship;  hence  without  the  possibility 
of  transmitting  such  a  custom  to  his  own  people.  Certainly, 
if  he  observed  a  woman  cutting  a  male  relative  by  marriage, 
he  would  not  be  stimulated  thereby  to  concoct  an  innova- 
tion for  his  own  people  by  which  a  man  should  avoid  his 
mother-in-law  or  father-in-law,  or  transfer  the  name  taboo 
to  a  quite  new  relationship.  The  custom  cannot  be  so  much 
as  comprehended  without  intimate  contact ;  and  if  it  is  not 
set  down  as  merely  a  barbarian  idiosyncrasy,  it  will  be 
adopted  as  it  is  found.     Most  commonly,  I  have  no  doubt, 


90 


PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 


its  propagation  must  have  been  the  result  of  intertribal  mar- 
riage:  brought  up  with  the  notion  that  the  wife's  mother 
or,  for  a  woman,  the  daughter's  son,  must  be  tabooed  and 
that  contrary  conduct  is  ridiculous  if  not  outrageous,  a  for- 
eigner may  by  his  personal  influence  come  to  affect  tribal 
custom.  Imitation  of  his  example  will  thus  establish  the 
taboo  where  it  had  not  been  found  before  but  it  could  not 
establish  what  to  the  concrete  mind  of  primitive  man  is 
an  utterly  distinct  practice.  Hence  I  unhesitatingly  reject, 
quite  apart  from  geographical  considerations  and  others 
based  on  the  probable  meaning  of  the  Siberian  usage 
(p.  103),  the  hypothesis  that  the  Kirgiz  and  the  Plains 
Indian  taboos  are  historically  connected. 

The  case  is  somewhat  different  when  we  compare,  say,  the 
African  and  Australian,  or  Melanesian  and  American  data, 
for  here  the  rules  relate  to  the  same  individuals  and  are 
really  remarkably  similar.  As  to  certain  striking  details, 
however,  we  must  remember  that  //  there  is  stringent 
avoidance  it  is  bound  to  take  certain  forms :  e.g.,  a  man  then 
must  make  a  detour  if  he  chances  upon  his  mother-in-law. 
Similarly,  if  the  Banks  Islander  and  the  Crow  must  not  use 
words  entering  the  parent-in-law's  name,  paraphrase  is  an 
inevitable  consequence.  The  specific  coincidences  are  thus 
not  nearly  so  cogent  as  they  might  at  first  appear  to  be.  In 
other  words,  the  question  is  whether  the  bare  fact  of  avoid- 
ance between  individuals  in  the  same  relationship  is  neces- 
sarily an  indication  of  a  single  source  of  origin.  The  reply 
will  partly  depend  on  the  interpretation  of  the  custom,  for 
if  it  is  derived  from  conditions  that  may  plausibly  be  re- 
garded as  existing  in  many  localities  the  assumption  of  in- 
dependent origin  will  be  greatly  strengthened.  Waiving 
this  point  for  the  present,  I  hold  that  both  the  probable 
mechanism  of  the  borrowing  process  for  this  trait  and  its 
ascertained  absence  in  certain  regions  negative  the  proba- 
bility of  diffusion  over  disconnected  continents.  Trans- 
mission of  the  usage  has  been  seen  to  involve  an  unusual 


KINSHIP  USAGES  91 

intimacy  of  contact  such  as  cannot  be  readily  assumed,  even 
if  some  contact  be  admitted,  l^etween  Oceania  and  Africa 
or  between  Melanesia  and  America.  It  is  surely  not  very 
probable  that  a  custom  which  failed  to  traverse  California 
or  to  pass  from  the  Hidatsa  to  the  neighboring  Arikara  and 
from  the  Omaha  to  the  neighboring  Pawnee  should  have 
leaped  across  oceans.  My  conclusion,  then,  is  that  diffusion 
has  played  its  part  in  the  history  of  the  parent-in-law  taboo 
but  that  independent  development  must  be  assumed  for  dis- 
tinct geographical  areas. 

Turning  next  to  the  problem  of  interpretation,  we  find  a 
theory  advanced  by  Frazer  which  with  all  its  deficiencies 
cannot  be  readily  ruled  out  of  court  entirely.  Frazer  rightly 
points  out  that  rules  of  avoidance  are  not  restricted  to 
parents-in-law  but  also  may  apply  to  such  blood  kindred  as 
brothers  and  sisters.  All  relevant  regulations,  he  argues, 
must  be  put  under  a  single  head  and  must  be  explained  as 
"precautions  designed  to  remove  the  temptation  to  sexual 
intercourse  between  persons  whose  marriage  union  is  for 
any  reason  repugnant  to  the  moral  sense  of  the  community." 
The  explanation,  he  recognizes,  suffers  from  a  serious, 
though  in  his  opinion  not  fatal,  difficulty,  to  wit,  the  taboos 
restricting  the  social  relations  of  individuals  of  the  same 
sex.  These,  according  to  his  contention,  are  due  to  a  second- 
ary extension  of  rules  that  once  applied  only  tO'  relatives  of 
opposite  sex.  It  is  impossible  to  do  justice  to  Frazer's  argu- 
ment without  anticipating  what  must  be  said  about  various 
other  kinship  usages.  One  remark,  however,  may  be  offered 
at  this  point.  Granting  that  taboos  restrain  individuals 
whose  union  would  be  incestuous,  it  does  not  follow  that 
their  purpose  is  to  prevent  sexual  intercourse  between  these 
individuals.  It  is  possible  to  admit  the  empirical  correlation 
but  to  reject  the  causal  interpretation  given.  To  this  topic 
we  must  revert  later. 

An  explanation  of  parent-in-law  taboos  similar  in  trend 
but  with  psycho-analytic  motivation  has  been  given  by  Dr. 


92  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Sigmund  Freud,  whose  views  merit  consideration  not  only 
on  their  own  account  but  as  typical  of  any  psychological 
interpretation  of  social  facts.  Freud  applies  to  the  data 
of  mother-in-law  avoidance  the  concept  of  'ambivalence,' 
that  is,  he  conceives  them  as  based  on  a  blending  of  affection 
and  animosity.  Some  of  the  hostile  motives  in  the  case,  he 
argues,  are  manifest:  the  woman's  reluctance  to  surrender 
her  daughter,  the  suspicions  directed  against  the  stranger, 
her  desire  to  maintain  the  dominant  position  created  in  her 
own  household  ;  the  man's  resolute  aversion  from  subjection 
to  an  alien  will,  his  jealousy  of  all  who  preceded  him  in  his 
wife's  affections,  his  resistance  against  having  his  sexual 
illusions  disturbed  by  the  personality  of  a  woman  who  re- 
calls his  wife  by  many  common  traits  yet  lacks  the  charm  of 
youth  and  beauty.  To  these  elements  Freud  adds  latent 
factors  of  specifically  psycho-analytic  nature.  The  aging 
mother-in-law  is  prematurely  cut  short  in  her  own  psycho- 
sexual  life  and  is  able  to  satisfy  her  emotional  needs  only 
by  identification  with  her  children's  psyche.  But  identifi- 
cation with  her  daughter  may  readily  lead  to  love  for  the 
man  her  daughter  loves,  and  in  the  resulting  conflict  of  senti- 
ments the  hostile,  sadistic  component  of  passion  is  directed 
toward  the  son-in-law  so  as  to  suppress  with  greater  cer- 
tainty the  tabooed  incestuous  emotion.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  son-in-law  is  stirred  by  similar  impulses.  He  has  con- 
quered, so  psycho-analytic  theory  will  have  it,  the  infantile 
passion  for  his  mother  and  substituted  an  unrelated  woman 
conceived  in  her  image.  With  the  appearance  of  his  mother- 
in-law  there  is  a  tendency  to  relapse  into  the  juvenile  state, 
which  shocks  his  incest  feelings  since  these  demand  that 
the  incestuous  source  of  his  bride-choice  remain  barred  from 
consciousness.  Inasmuch  as  the  mother-in-law's  personality, 
unlike  the  mother's,  has  not  been  known  from  the  earliest 
stages,  so  that  her  image  has  not  been  for  years  slumbering 
unaltered  in  the  subconsciousness,  it  is  relatively  easy  to 
conquer  temptation,  which  nevertheless  remains  a  reality, 


KINSHIP  USAGES  93 

The  motive  for  the  avoidance  rule  is  accordingly  the  pre- 
vention of  incestuous  intercourse. 

The  first  stricture  that  must  be  directed  against  Freud's 
explanation  relates  to  a  simple  matter  of  fact.  He  paints 
the  subjective  state  of  mother-in-law  and  son-in-law  with 
the  lurid  colors  that  tinge  our  modern  family  life  but  are 
wholly  lacking  in  the  savage  relationship.  To  repeat  what 
has  already  been  said :  whenever  we  gain  a  glimpse  of  what 
the  connections  by  marriage  really  feel,  there  is  never  a 
trace  of  hostility:  respect  is  invariably  the  dominant  note  in 
the  mutual  sentiments,  which  are  thus  of  a  totally  different 
character  from  the  ones  that  so  persistently  figure  in  our 
comic  weeklies. 

The  data  concerning  other  taboos  have  of  course  the 
same  bearing  on  Freud's  as  on  Frazer's  views.  But  Freud's 
psychological  motivation  suffers  from  a  fatal  defect  shared 
with  all  psychological  interpretations  of  cultural  data.  The 
facts  of  psychology  to  which  Freud  appeals  possess  avow- 
edly universal  validity,  they  must  accordingly  act  with  equal 
force  in  the  most  diverse,  in  all  communities,  except  so  far 
as  there  may  be  racial  differences.  But  the  parent-in-law 
taboo  is  found  to  have  a  most  capricious  distribution.  In 
North  America  the  Navaho  avoid  the  mother-in-law,  while 
the  neighboring  Hopi  view  the  custom  merely  as  a  Navaho 
peculiarity.  The  Lemhi  Shoshoni  regard  a  man  as  insane 
if  he  speaks  to  his  wife's  mother;  among  the  Comanche, 
who  are  not  merely  of  the  same  stock  but  even  speak  prac- 
tically the  same  language,  I  had  great  difficulty  in  making 
my  informants  so  much  as  grasp  the  notion  of  the  taboo. 
Shall  we  assume  that  the  infantile  sentiments  of  the  Hopi 
male  diverge  so  widely  from  those  of  the  Navaho?  That 
the  emotional  reactions  of  Hopi  and  Navaho  mothers-in- 
law  will  regularly  be  quite  distinct  in  character?  Indeed, 
in  order  to  adapt  the  theory  to  the  facts  we  must  assume 
one  type  of  psychology  for  the  Banks  Islanders,  Australians, 
Zulu.  Navaho  and  Lemhi  Shoshoni  and  a  different  psychol- 


94  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

ogy  for  the  Hopi,  Comanche,  and  Arikara.  But  to  conceive 
this  assumption  is  to  reduce  it  to  an  absurdity.  The  psycho- 
analytic theory  falls  to  the  ground  because  it  is  a  psycho- 
logical theory,  and  because  we  are  not  dealing  with  simple 
psychological  facts  but  with  psychological  facts  socially  de- 
termined. The  reason  why  a  Navaho  mother-in-law  avoids 
her  son-in-law  is  not  because  she  individually  feels  this  way 
or  that  way  about  her  son-in-law  but  because  she  is  a  mem- 
ber of  a  society  which  taboos  intercourse  between  certain 
relatives  by  marriage.  Any  conflict  that  might  conceivably 
arise  in  her  situation  would  be  a  conflict  not  between  one 
set  of  feelings  and  another  set  of  feelings  for  her  daughter's 
husband  but  between  some  personal  reaction  and  the  senti- 
ment of  blind  obedience  to  an  accepted  social  norm.  The 
question  is  why  social  norms  differ,  and  that  can  be  an- 
swered solely  by  correlating  the  social  differences  with  other 
differences  of  a  social  order. 

In  this  respect  Tylor's  interpretation  accords  much  better 
with  modern  scientific  requirements,  for  he  derives  parent- 
in-law  avoidance  from  the  rule  of  residence,  i.e.,  one  socio- 
logical feature  from  another.  In  matrilocal  marriage,  he 
explains,  the  husband  is  regarded  as  an  intruder  and  is 
simply  not  recognized,  corresponding  treatment  being  meted 
out  to  the  wife  in  patrilocal  communities,  while  both  kinds 
of  taboo  occur  in  the  intermediate  condition  of  temporary 
matrilocal  residence.  On  statistical  principles  he  shows  that 
the  matrilocal  residence  and  mother-in-law  avoidance  ac- 
tually are  combined  more  frequently  than  they  would  be  if 
mutually  independent,  thus  establishing  a  causal  connection 
between  the  two  phenomena. 

Tylor's  attempt  to  introduce  rigorous  methods  into  an- 
thropological inquiries  must  ever  rank  as  an  heroic  pioneer 
achievement  of  the  very  first  order  but  his  statistical  results 
cannot  be  accepted  unscrutinized.  Unfortunately  the  data 
on  which  his  conclusions  are  based  have  never  been  pub- 
lished, and  it  is  therefore  impossible  to  check  them  satis- 


KINSHIP  USAGES  95 

factorily.  It  is  clear,  however,  from  his  statements  that 
Tylor  takes  for  statistical  units  the  several  tribes  for  which 
relevant  facts  are  reported.  But  this  is  hardly  a  defensible 
method.  For  example,  there  may  be  a  dozen  cases  of  the 
daughter-in-law  taboo  among  Siberian  tril>es.  If  in  each 
one  of  them  there  has  been  an  independent  association  of 
patrilocal  residence  and  avoidance,  then  the  case  for  a  causal 
nexus  is  tremendously  strengthened.  But  we  cannot  take 
such  independence  for  granted.  It  is  entirely  possible  that 
the  avoidance  rule  was  a  feature  already  characteristic  of 
certain  ancestral  Siberian  tribes,  that  in  other  words  it  orig- 
inated but  a  single  time  so  far  as  each  stock  is  concerned 
and  has  merely  persisted  in  the  several  branches  into  which 
the  ancestral  tribe  has  broken  up.  In  addition,  it  is  more 
than  probable  that  this  applies  strictly  to  only  one  stock 
from  which  the  tribes  of  other  stocks  have  merely  borrowed 
the  usage  in  its  entire  setting.  But  this  alters  the  logic  of 
the  case  completely.  Let  us  assume,  for  the  sake  of  sim- 
plicity, that  we  have  a  single  contradictory  case  elsewhere 
to  pit  against  the  dozen  Siberian  cases ;  let  us  take  some 
American  tribe,  like  the  patrilocal  Blackfoot,  who  lack  the 
Siberian  rule  and  practise  the  taboo  proper  to  a  matrilocal 
people  on  Tylor's  scheme.  If  the  Siberian  cases  represented 
twelve  instances  of  the  taboo  arising  independently  from 
antecedent  patrilocal  residence,  we  should  admit  at  once 
that  they  completely  outweighed  the  negative  testimony  of 
the  Blackfoot  data.  But  if  there  has  been  historical  con- 
nection, the  twelve  Siberian  units  are  reduced  to  a  single 
one  for  our  purposes  and  w^e  have  one  case  of  connection 
harmonizing  with  Tylor's  theory  and  one  case  contravening 
it ;  in  other  words,  the  theory  then  remains  unproved. 

This  is  merely  to  show^  that  Tylor's  results,  w^hile  based 
on  mathematical  principles,  may  nevertheless  be  lacking  in 
validity  because  of  erroneous  premises,  viz.,  a  faulty  choice 
of  units.  Indeed,  if  we  take  larger  units,  the  correlation  is 
hardly  favorable  to  the  hypothesis  in  an  unqualified  form. 


96  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Siberia,  to  be  sure,  has  both  patrilocal  residence  and  the 
taboo  between  daughter-in-law  and  father-in-law ;  but 
neither  the  Australian  nor  the  South  African  data  harmonize 
with  the  theory.  In  both  areas  the  wife  goes  to  her  hus- 
band's people  yet  not  only  is  the  Siberian  prohibition  lack- 
ing, but  the  reverse  rule  holds,  viz.,  the  son-in-law  taboo, 
which  ex  hypothesi  should  develop  only  in  a  matrilocal  com- 
munity. Further,  it  is  rather  remarkable  that  such  distinctly 
matrilocal  tribes  as  the  Zuiii  and  Hopi  lack  the  supposedly 
correlated  avoidance  rule,  while  peoples  only  temporarily 
matrilocal  like  the  Hidatsa  rigorously  observed  it  as  did  the 
patrilocal  Blackfoot,  who  are  definitely  known  to  lack  the 
daughter-in-law  taboo,  which  on  Tylor's  theory  should  flour- 
ish among  them. 

There  is  still  another  oversight  in  Tylor's  interpretation. 
He  explains  why  both  of  the  parents-in-law  and  the  son-in- 
law  would  avoid  each  other  among  matrilocal,  and  why  both 
of  the  parents-in-law  and  daughter-in-law  should  avoid 
each  other  in  patrilocal  tribes.  But  in  many  of  the  recorded 
instances  the  taboo  is  restricted  to  individuals  of  opposite 
sex.  In  some  Australian  tribes  there  is  no  obstacle  raised 
between  the  intercourse  of  father-in-law  and  son-in-law  nor 
in  Siberia  between  mother-in-law  and  daughter-in-law ;  and 
on  the  whole  these  cases  are  too  frequent  to  be  ignored. 

Nevertheless,  when  all  deductions  are  made,  I  still  believe 
that  Tylor's  theory  contains  a  valuable  element.  Residence 
is  not,  clearly  enough,  the  sole  efficient  cause  of  the  parent- 
in-law  taboos  but  it  may  well  be  one  of  the  determinants  or 
act  as  a  cause  in  the  absence  of  deterrent  factors.  A  finer 
analysis  than  any  yet  attempted  may  to  that  extent  qualify 
the  negative  conclusion  reached  above.  Here  a  mere  sug- 
gestion must  suffice.  The  patrilocal  Siberian  tribes  enum- 
erated were  shown  to  enjoin  avoidance  of  the  husband's 
father  or  male  kinsman  older  than  the  husband's.  But  the 
Yukaghir  who  are  matrilocal  not  only  share  the  taboo  of 
the  patrilocal  Siberians,  a  fact  quite  intelligible  as  the  effect 


KINSHIP  USAGES  97 

of  diffusion,  but  also  differ  practically  from  all  the  rest  in 
adding  the  son-in-law  taboo.  It  is  difficult  to  evade  the  in- 
ference that  there  is  a  connection  between  the  unique  mode 
of  residence  and  the  unique  taboo. 

In  view  of  Frazer's  reasonable  suggestion  that  parent- 
in-law  avoidance  represents  but  one  species  of  a  wider 
genus,  its  interpretation  is  best  deferred  until  we  shall  have 
surveyed  prohibitions  affecting  other  relationships.^ 

Other  Taboos 

Since  it  is  impossible  to  deal  with  all  the  recorded  kinship 
taboos,  we  had  better  limit  our  attention  to  a  few  thor- 
oughly studied  tribes  and  the  restrictions  on  social  inter- 
course imposed  in  each  case.  The  consequences  of  these 
rules  for  the  everyday  family  life  will  be  readily  imagined. 

Probably  no  people  has  gone  further  in  this  respect  than 
the  Yukaghir.  In  addition  to  the  son-in-law  and  daughter- 
in-law  prohibitions  as  met  elsewhere  we  find  rules  barring 
speech  between  the  elder  brother  or  male  cousin  and  the 
younger  brother's  or  cousin's  wife;  between  the  elder 
brother  (cousin)  and  the  wife  of  the  younger  brother's 
(cousin's)  son:  between  the  elder  brother  and  the  wife  of 
his  younger  sister's  son ;  between  the  elder  brother  and  the 
younger  sister's  husband.  But  blood-kindred  are  likewise 
subject  to  restrictions :  brothers  should  not  converse  unre- 
strainedly with  one  another,  nor  brothers  with  sisters,  nor 
sisters  with  one  another,  and  this  rule  extends  to  cousins. 
Persons  in  any  one  of  these  relationships  must  not  uncover 
their  bodies  in  one  another's  presence,  not  even  if  of  the 
same  sex,  and  they  must  refrain  from  discussing  anything 
relating  to  cohabitation.  They  must  not  address  one  an- 
other directly  nor  look  at  one  another,  must  neither  call  one 
another  by  name  nor  by  a  kinship  term. 

In  the  Andaman  Islands  I  do  not  find  the  parent-in-law 
taboo  recorded  but  its  place  is  taken  by  a  similar  rule. 


98  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Until  middle  age  a  man  evinces  great  shyness  in  the  presence 
of  his  younger  brother's  wife,  never  communicating  with 
her  except  through  an  intermediary.  There  is  no  such  pro- 
hibition of  social  intercourse  with  the  elder  brother's  wife. 

The  Melanesians  prescribe  circumspectness  of  behavior 
for  a  number  of  varying  relationships.  There  is  a  fairly 
widespread  prohibition  of  intercourse  between  brother  and 
sister.  In  Lepers'  Island  they  never  see  each  other  after 
the  girl's  puberty  tattooing,  for  she  leaves  the  house  to  take 
up  her  abode  with  a  maternal  uncle.  If  they  meet  subse- 
quently, the  girl  gets  out  of  the  way  and  both  avoid  looking 
at  each  other.  They  never  speak  of  each  other  or  utter 
each  other's  names.  If  the  man  wishes  to  see  his  nephews, 
his  married  sister  will  leave  the  house  before  he  enters. 
Anciently  the  Fijians  observed  analogous  regulations : 
brother  and  sister  might  not  speak  to  each  other  or  play 
and  eat  together,  and  communication  was  through  an  inter- 
mediary ;  neither  pronounced  the  other's  personal  name.  In 
New  Ireland,  where  cross-cousins  of  opposite  sex  are  classed 
with  siblings,  the  same  restrictions  apply  to  them.  In  the 
Banks  Islands  the  sibling  taboo  is  w^eakened  into  a  rule 
against  mutual  jesting,  but  a  host  of  other  regulations  are 
reported.  Father  and  son  must  not  eat  together.  A  man 
must  not  take  something  hanging  above  his  maternal  uncle's 
head  but  must  wait  till  his  uncle  is  gone.  The  father's  sister 
is  not  only  treated  with  distinguished  respect  as  previously 
explained,  but  her  name  is  not  uttered  nor  will  she  pro- 
nounce that  of  her  nephew.  A  husband  may  call  his  wife  by 
name  but  it  is  considered  highly  disrespectful  on  her  part 
to  address  him  correspondingly  (see  p.  109).  Brothers- 
in-law  refrain  from  uttering  each  other's  names,  and  so  do 
sisters-in-law ;  jesting  between  two  individuals  in  this  re- 
lationship is  considered  objectionable. 

To  take  a  final  example  from  America.  The  Crow  in- 
clude in  the  son-in-law  taboo,  as  commonly  happens  among 
primitive  tribes,  not  only  the  mother-in-law's  and  father- 


KINSHIP  USAGES  99 

in-law's  sisters  and  brothers  respectively,  but  also  the  wife's 
grandmothers ;  and  the  husband's  own  brothers  are  subject 
to  the  husband's  taboos.  That  is  to  say,  there  is  a  tendency 
to  extend  the  restriction  to  individuals  addressed  by  the 
wife  as  if  they  were  her  parents,  and  to  inviduals  occupy- 
ing the  husband's  status.  Further,  a  man  is  obliged  to  shun 
his  wife's  brother's  wife,  and  vice  versa.  The  relations  of 
brothers-in-law  are  peculiar.  They  are  on  terms  of  the 
greatest  friendship  and  may  indulge  in  good-humored  rail- 
lery, but  anything  savoring  of  obscenity  with  a  personal 
application  is  out  of  the  question  between  them,  and  if  a 
man  transgresses  the  rule  his  brother-in-law  may  strike  him. 
A  man  may  not  speak  obscenely  in  his  brother-in-law's 
presence  even  if  he  is  conversing  with  other  individuals. 
Brother  and  sister  are  not  indeed  prohibited  completely  from 
conversation,  but  after  puberty  they  no  longer  speak  freely 
to  each  other  nor  are  they  supposed  to  be  together  alone. 
A  man  entering  a  tent  and  finding  only  his  sister  indoors 
will  depart  forthwith.  A  Crow  interpreter  once  twitted  me 
with  the  indecency  of  the  Caucasians  who  dare  reproach  the 
Indians  with  looseness  of  morals  while  themselves  so  shame- 
less as  to  speak  freely  with  their  own  sisters.  Finally,  hus- 
band and  wife  generally  avoid  calling  each  other  by  name 
except  after  years  of  marriage.^ 

Privileged  Familiarity 

Representing  the  opposite  pole  of  social  intercourse  are 
the  series  of  customs  that  permit  and  all  but  prescribe  vari- 
ous forms  of  often  but  not  always  reciprocal  familiarity, 
such  as  chaffing  or  billingsgate  between  individuals  stand- 
ing in  a  specific  relationship.  These  usages,  like  others  con- 
nected with  kinship,  did  not  attract  systematic  inquiry  until 
recent  years,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  a  far  greater 
amount  of  information  remains  to  be  garnered.  At  present 
most  of  our  data  come  from  Melanesia  and  North  America. 

The  avunculate,  despite  its  more  serious  aspect,  demands 


lOO  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

consideration  from  this  angle  also.  In  Fiji  the  sister's  son 
not  merely  treats  his  uncle's  property  as  if  it  were  his 
father's,  but  recklessly  and  wantonly  kills  his  pigs  and  de- 
stroys his  plantations  for  the  fun  of  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
when  he  seizes  stuff  at  an  exchange  between  his  uncle's  tribe 
and  another  group,  he  gets  a  drubbing  from  his  uncle's 
sons ;  they  are  at  liberty  to  beat  him  but  may  not  recover 
the  property.  Among  the  Winnebago  Indians,  too,  it  will 
be  recalled,  the  nephew  may  appropriate  the  belongings  of 
his  maternal  uncle.  With  the  Thonga  the  sister's  son  takes 
his  uncle's  food  and  among  the  Hottentot  the  uncle  may 
seize  his  nephew's  property  if  damaged,  while  the  nephew 
freely  indemnifies  himself  with  his  uncle's  uninjured  pos- 
sessions. 

One  of  the  best-authenticated  instances  of  privileged 
familiarity  is  that  between  brother-in-law  and  sister-in-law 
among  the  Blackfoot  and  Crow  Indians.  There  is  no  limit 
to  the  obscenity  of  language  that  may  be  bandied  back  and 
forth  by  these  connections.  As  to  behavior,  I  have  myself 
seen  a  middle-aged  Crow  romping  with  his  wife's  sister  in 
a  manner  that  would  strike  us  as  transcending  all  limits  of 
decency,  yet  both  were  quite  unconcerned  at  the  presence 
of  the  man's  wiie  and  adult  son. 

Of  a  distinct  character  is  the  joking-relationship  of  the 
Crow  and  Hidatsa.  TTie  people  involved  are  not  neces- 
sarily kindred  at  all  but  merely  children  of  fathers  belong- 
ing to  the  same  tribal  subdivision  (see  p.  ii6).  Within 
this  group  license  runs  riot :  any  member  may  play  tricks 
on  any  other  and  enjoy  complete  immunity.  But  the  rela- 
tionship has  a  more  serious  function.  A  man's  jokers  are 
also  his  moral  censors.  If  he  has  in  any  way  transgressed 
the  tribal  code  of  ethics  or  etiquette,  a  joker  will  suddenly 
confront  him  on  a  public  occasion  and  twit  him  with  it 
aloud  so  that  he  feels  like  sinking  into  the  ground  with 
shame.  Yet  he  has  no  redress  but  to  await  a  chance  for 
requital. 


KINSHIP  USAGES  loi 

Privileged  license  is  reported  from  Melanesia  for  a  dif- 
ferent relationship.  In  Fiji  one  cross-cousin  may  impu- 
dently appropriate  another's  possessions  just  as  a  nephew 
does  a  maternal  uncle's ;  the  despoiled  cousin  may  chide  his 
robber  but  must  not  attempt  to  retrieve  his  property,  for 
that  would  be  a  sign  of  low  breeding.  Even  if  of  opposite 
sex  cross-cousins  may  take  liberties  with  each  other,  and 
formerly  sexual  intercourse  between  them  was  condoned. 
Abusive  language  among  cross-cousins  is  sanctioned  as 
proper  and  is  accordingly  not  resented.  In  the  Banks 
Islands  there  are  localities  where  brother-in-law  and  sister- 
in-law  indulged  in  horseplay,  though  not  to  the  extent  noted 
for  the  Plains  Indians,  definite  sexual  references  being 
avoided.  A  Banks  Islander,  however,  may  heap  almost 
any  indignity  on  his  father's  sister's  husband,  threatening 
him  and  mocking  him  continually.^ 

Taboo  and  License 

The  examples  of  taboos  and  of  license  cited  from  various 
parts  of  the  world  abundantly  justify  Frazer's  contention 
that  it  is  unwarrantable  to  discuss  parent-in-law  restrictions 
apart  from  all  others.  Evidently  these  prohibitions  repre- 
sent but  one  special  type  of  a  broader  class  of  usages  regu- 
lating the  social  behavior  of  relatives  by  blood  and  mar- 
riage. That  all  of  the  taboos  or  all  of  the  cases  ot  privilege 
should  have  a  common  psychological  basis,  is  a  highly  im- 
probable assumption  on  the  face  of  it.  It  is  clear  without 
argument  that  the  Crow  custom  permitting  familiarity  with 
the  sister-in-law  differs  fundamentally  from  the  phenome- 
non of  the  joking-relationship  with  its  blending  of  serious 
and  comic  elements.  Hence  it  is  desirable  to  renounce  once 
and  for  all  a  theory  that  shall  embrace  all  the  data  cited. 
The  regulations  in  a  particular  locality  should  rather  be 
viewed  in  conjunction  with  the  whole  culture,  and  what- 
ever interpretations  appear  from  such  an  inquiry  may  then 


I02  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

be  compared  with  corresponding  results  from  other  regions. 
Since  our  data  are  still  so  inadequate,  definitive  explana- 
tions can  hardly  be  expected  at  present;  nevertheless  some 
inferences  may  be  stated  with  considerable  assurance. 

In  seeking  a  guiding  principle  for  the  maze  of  detail  we 
had  best  begin  with  a  simple  case,  one  where  we  are  not 
obliged  to  contend  with  a  multiplicity  of  regulations  pos- 
sibly based  on  a  variety  of  motives  but  where  the  taboos 
are  few  and  can  readily  be  correlated  with  some  coexisting 
usage.  Such  an  instance  is  furnished  by  the  Andaman 
Islands.  From  there  a  single  taboo  is  reported,  that  against 
social  relations  between  a  man  and  his  younger  brother's 
wife  ;  and  we  are  expressly  informed  that  there  is  no  restric- 
tion on  intercourse  between  a  man  and  his  elder  brother's 
wife.  This  rule,  then,  is  directly  connected  with  the  co- 
existing form  of  marriage  known  as  the  junior  levirate. 
For  this  people,  at  least,  we  may  enunciate  the  principle 
that  social  and  sexual  restrictions  go  hand  in  hand,  a  con- 
clusion adopted  in  more  general  form  by  Dr.  Goldenweiser 
on  the  basis  of  Sternberg's  unpublished  Gilyak  data  and  by 
Dr.  Rivers  as  a  result  of  his  Oceanian  researches.  I  would 
supplement  this  statement  with  another,  viz.,  that  licensed 
familiarity  generally  obtains  between  potential  mates. 

Let  us  now  test  these  propositions  by  the  evidence  from 
several  distinct  regions.  The  Crow  restrict  intimacy  be- 
tween siblings,  whose  union  is  of  course  out  of  the  question ; 
and  they  permit  excessive  liberties  between  a  man  and  his 
brother's  wife,  w^hom  he  may  inherit  by  the  levirate,  and 
also  between  a  man  and  his  wife's  sister,  whom  he  could 
until  recently  take  for  an  additional  wife  through  the  soro- 
rate.  In  Melanesia  a  similar  correlation,  positive  and  nega- 
tive, has  been  noted :  siblings  of  opposite  sex  shun  each 
other,  brother-in-law  and  sister-in-law  are  on  terms  of  fa- 
miliarity. From  South  Africa  there  comes  corroboratory 
testimony  not  yet  cited.  A  Thonga  woman  is  free  in  her 
relations  with  her  husband's  younger  brother,   whom  she 


KINSHIP  USAGES  103 

may  some  day  wed,  but  distant  reserve  characterizes  her 
intercourse  with  the  husband's  elder  brother,  who  can  never 
marry  her.  This  is  simply  the  Andaman  Island  case  re- 
peated. But  a  wife  may  also  be  inherited  by  the  sister's 
son,  and  we  verily  find  that  this  nephew  may  take  all  sorts 
of  liberties  with  his  maternal  uncle's  wife  even  during  her 
husband's  lifetime.  Finally,  a  Thonga  man  shuns  his  wife's 
elder  sisters,  who  are  not  among  his  possible  mates,  and 
treats  with  the  utmost  freedom  her  younger  sisters,  who 
may  become  subsidiary  wives. 

To  these  examples  I  will  now  add  the  Siberian  parent-in- 
law  taboos.     The  peculiarity  of  this  set  of  restrictions  lies 
in  the  inclusion  of  the  husband's  elder  brother  together  with 
the  husband's   father :   a  woman  must  shun   or   reverence 
both  in  the  same  fashion.     Further,  there  is  (except  among 
the    Yukaghir)    complete    absence    of    the    taboo    between 
mother-in-law  and  son-in-law  and  virtual  absence  of  any 
restriction     on     relations     between     daughter-in-law     and 
mother-in-law.     These  facts  are  at  once  intelligible  if  we 
conceive  the  'parent-in-law'  taboo  as  essentially  a  brother- 
in-law  taboo  based  on  the  junior  levirate,  which  many  Si- 
berian   tribes    share    with    the    Andaman    Islanders.      The 
extension  of  the  prohibition  to  the  father-in-law  is  readily 
explained    from   another   Siberian   trait,    the   emphasis   on 
sheer  seniority  in  the  classification  of  kin,  to  the  point  of 
disregarding  a  difference  in  generation.     Thus,  the  Votyak 
have  a  single  word  for  any  male  kinsman  older  than  the 
speaker,  and  the  Yukaghir  denote  by  one  term  the  hus- 
band's  father  and  the  husband's   elder  brother.      On   my 
hypothesis  it  is  clear  why  the   Siberians,   with  the  single 
exception  noted,  lack  the  taboos  so  frequently  found  else- 
where.     For   the  mother-in-law   is   not   concerned   in   the 
daughter-in-law's   inheritance   by  her   husband's   kinsmen; 
nor  does  the  levirate  affect  the  relative  status  of  son-in-law 
and  father-in-law. 

The  Siberian  example  is  interesting  from  another  angle. 


I04  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

It  illustrates  the  possibility  of  convergent  evolution.  The 
causal  sequence  in  Siberia  is :  junior  levirate,  hence  taboo 
between  sister-in-law  and  husband's  elder  brother;  identi- 
fication of  husband's  father  with  husband's  elder  brother, 
hence  extension  of  avoidance  to  the  former.  From  the  As- 
siniboin  the  daughter-in-law  and  father-in-law  avoidance 
has  also  been  reported,  but  since  this  people  neither  prac- 
tise the  junior  levirate  nor  identify  husband's  elder  brother 
and  husband's  father,  the  history  of  their  taboo  must  be 
different  from  that  of,  say,  the  Kirgiz  taboo.  Thus,  the 
same  result  may  be  arrived  at  through  varying  stages  of 
development. 

To  return  to  the  main  proposition.  The  cases  quoted 
yield  ample  evidence  for  the  reality  of  the  correlation  stated 
above,  viz.,  between  social  and  sexual  taboos,  and  between 
social  license  and  the  possibility  of  sex  relations.  But  the 
existence  of  taboos  between  members  of  the  same  sex  indi- 
cates that  this  principle  by  no  means  explains  all  the  phe- 
nomena with  which  we  are  dealing.  It  is  permissible  to 
argue  that  a  rule  has  been  extended  from  one  relative  to 
another  when,  as  in  the  Siberian  case,  there  is  specific  evi- 
dence to  support  the  assumption.  We  cannot,  however, 
content  ourselves  with  Frazer's  labor-saving  assumption 
that  every  taboo  between  members  of  the  same  sex  has 
grown  out  of  a  taboo  affecting  persons  of  opposite  sex, 
an  hypothesis  rightly  repudiated  by  Dr.  Parsons.  Such 
wholesale  interpretations  will  be  eschewed  by  the  sane 
historian  in  favor  of  an  intensive  study  of  all  the  taboos  of 
a  particular  tribe  in  their  normal  cultural  setting. 

At  this  stage  a  point  temporarily  dismissed  before  again 
raises  its  head.  If  there  is  an  empirical  correlation  be- 
tween social  and  sexual  taboos,  why  not  follow  Frazer's 
psychological  interpretation  of  the  correlation  so  far  as  it 
holds?  Why  not  assume  that  social  relations  are  tabooed 
in  order  to  prevent  sexual  intercourse  between  the  restricted 
individuals?     My  answer  is  that  incestuous  relations  are 


KINSHIP  USAGES  105 

amply  prevented  by  other  factors  of  a  far  more  basic  nature 
than  the  taboos  in  question.  If  the  horror  of  incest  be- 
tween brother  and  sister  is  instinctive,  as  I  assume  with 
Hobhouse,  then  no  social  restriction  is  required  to  enforce 
an  innate  aversion.  But  even  if  that  hypothesis  be  repudi- 
ated, there  are  fundamental  social  laws  that  preclude  incest. 
In  Australia  we  find  matrimonial  laws  of  which  the  trans- 
gression was  punished  with  death  even  where  nothing  we 
regard  as  incestuous  was  involved :  a  man  might  mate  only 
with  a  member  of  a  specified  class,  say.  his  mother's 
brother's  daughter.  Again,  in  many  parts  of  Melanesia,  the 
tribe  is  divided  into  exogamous  units,  all  siblings  belonging 
to  the  same  unit.  Under  such  conditions  a  man  and  his 
sister  cannot  possibly  be  mates. 

I  must  confess  that  in  the  cases  mainly  discussed  hitherto, 
viz.,  those  affected  by  the  junior  levirate  and  sororate,  the 
psychological  interpretation  seems  simple.  Convention  has 
dichotomized  biologically  desirable  mates  into  those  who 
are  and  those  who  are  not  sociologically  possible.  Hence 
there  naturally  follows  a  difference  of  attitude,  which  in  the 
one  case  may  degenerate  into  license,  in  the  other  assume  the 
grotesque  prudery  of  avoidance.  That  is,  with  certain  re- 
lations once  definitely  established  as  incestuous,  I  believe 
that  taboos  are  no  longer  required  to  enforce  continence 
but  that  they  are  the  spontaneous  outgrowths  of  the  arti- 
ficially extended  incest  horror.  Anything  that  even  re- 
motely suggests  sexual  relations  produces  a  feeling  of  re- 
vulsion and  this  frame  of  mind  leads  to  complete  severance 
of  intercourse. 

But  I  am  not  at  all  convinced  that  the  parent-in-law 
taboos  are  always  or  even  frequently  to  be  considered  in 
the  same  category  with  the  taboos  affecting  members  of  the 
opposite  sex  and  the  same  generation.  For  example,  the 
Crow  restrict  intercourse  not  only  between  mother-in-law 
and  son-in-law  but  also  between  father-in-law  and  son- 
in-law  and  between  two  brothers-in-law.     It  is  certainly 


io6  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

remarkable  that  a  people  far  from  averse  to  grossness  In 
their  mythology  and  everyday  conversation  should  exhil^it 
such  delicacy  in  the  conduct  imposed  on  a  man  in  the  com- 
pany of  his  wife's  brother.  This  trait  has  also  been  ob- 
served among  the  Blackfoot  and  Arapaho  and  may  turn 
out  to  be  of  far  more  common  occurrence  than  might  be 
imagined  from  our  meager  records.  So  far  as  this  region 
of  North  America  is  concerned,  then,  we  may  ultimately 
find  that  the  basic  sentiment  is  one  of  respectful  reserve  to 
be  maintained  towards  members  of  the  wife's  family  re- 
gardless of  age ;  but  that  a  difference  in  both  generation 
and  sex  has  naturally  intensified  the  feeling  in  the  case  of 
mother-in-law  avoidance. 

The  necessity  of  viewing  all  the  taboos  of  a  region  jointly 
is  especially  manifest  with  regard  to  name  taboos.  Consid- 
ering the  superstitions  clinging  to  names  in  savage  com- 
munities, where  they  are  usually  supplanted  by  kinship 
terms  in  daily  intercourse,  the  existence  of  such  prohibitions 
in  connection  with  kinship  presents  no  great  puzzle,  but  it 
is  essential  to  note  whose  name  is  tabooed.  Among  the 
Toda  a  man  never  utters  either  parent-in-law's  name  but 
neither  does  he  pronounce  that  of  either  grandparent,  and 
only  reluctantly  does  he  mention  his  wife's.  Hence  this 
taboo  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  specifically  parent-in-law 
taboo,  and  it  certainly  cannot  be  connected  with  sexual  re- 
strictions. This  interpretation  applies  equally  to  the  Crow, 
among  whom  spouses  normally  avoid  uttering  each  other's 
names.  Among  a  Melanesian  people  the  husband  is  per- 
mitted to  call  his  wife  by  name,  but  not  vice  versa;  Dr. 
Rivers'  informant  plausibly  explained  this  as  a  sign  of 
female  inferiority.  The  avoidance  of  the  name  of  a  par- 
ticular relative  is  thus  liable  to  complete  misinterpretation 
if  we  connect  it  merely  with  a  corresponding  taboo  on  the 
other  side  of  the  globe  instead  of  correlating  it  with  cor- 
responding restrictions  on  the  use  of  names  of  other  rela- 
tives in  the  same  society.     It  is  only  from  this  thorough- 


KINSHIP  USAGES  107 

going  investigation  of  particular  regions  and  subsequent 
comparison  of  different  areas,  not  from  random  running  of 
parallels,  that  we  can  expect  light  on  the  meaning  of  avoid- 
ance rules. 

This  intensive  type  of  inquiry,  if  anything,  will  also 
illuminate  the  absence  of  taboos  that  might  reasonably  be 
expected.  Why,  e.g.,  do  the  Kariera  lack  a  taboo  between 
son-in-law  and  father-in-law?  I  do  not  profess  to  know 
but  the  direction  in  which  an  explanation  may  be  sought  is 
worth  indicating.  It  is  possibly  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
a  man's  father-in-law  is  normally  his  maternal  uncle  and 
that  the  Kariera  conception  of  the  avuncular  bond  precludes 
avoidance.  This  explanation  would  of  course  be  limited  to 
the  Kariera  and  such  tribes  as  share  their  notions  of  kin- 
ship. At  all  events,  it  is  clear  that  if  we  desire  to  get  at  the 
bottom  of  taboos  we  must  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  culture 
of  the  tribes  observing  them ;  and  since  they  may  have  bor- 
rowed their  taboos  the  culture  of  the  entire  area  must  be 
subjected  to  careful  examination.  There  is  no  royal  road 
to  the  comprehension  of  cultural  phenomena.^ 

Teknonymy 

When  an  Ewe  child  is  born,  the  parents  are  henceforth 
no  longer  addressed  by  their  own  names  but  are  designated 
as  the  infant's  father  and  mother,  e.g.,  "Father  (Mother) 
of  Komla."  This  practice  of  naming  the  parent  (or  other 
relative)  from  a  child  was  first  conceptualized  and  inter- 
preted by  Tylor,  who  coined  a  Greek  derivative,  teknonymy, 
to  label  this  curious  phenomenon.  Applying  the  statistical 
method  noticed  above,  he  inferred  that  teknonymy  was 
causally  connected  with  the  institution  of  matrilocal  resi- 
dence and  also  with  the  son-in-law  taboo.  The  son-in-law, 
he  reasoned,  is  at  first  cut  as  a  stranger  by  his  wife's  family 
but  subsequently  gains  status  in  the  household  as  the  father 
of  the  child  born  there,  whereupon  he  is  addressed,  as  it 
were,  in  terms  of  the  child. 


io8  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

Tylor  knew  of  some  thirty  peoples  who'  named  the  parent 
from  the  child,  though  he  cites  only  three, — the  Bechuana 
of  South  Africa,  the  Khasi  of  Assam,  and  the  Cree  of 
western  Canada.     It  has  since  become  clear  that  teknonymy 
is   far   more   widely  disseminated    over   the   earth.      Thus 
Frazer's  compilation  proves  its  occurrence  in  Australia  and 
New   Guinea,    in   Malaysia,   China   and   northern    Siberia, 
among  various  Bantu  tribes  of  Africa,  in  northern  British 
Columbia,  in  Guatemala,  and  Patagonia.     Even  so  his  list 
is  remarkable  for  omissions  that  can  be  supplied  from  avail- 
able literature.     For  example,  in  the  Andamans,  among  the 
peasant  Sinhalese  and  the  Henebedda  Vedda,  the  custom 
has  attracted  notice,  and  among  the  Gold  of  the  Amur  a 
woman  always  calls  her  husband  "Father  of  So-and-so." 
Teknonymy  has  been  found  in  Fiji  and  other  sections  of 
Melanesia  and  in  various  parts  of  America.     Among  the 
Zufii  and  Hopi  its  vogue  is  unparalleled.     A  Hopi  woman 
addresses  her  mother-in-law  as  "Grandmother  of  So-and- 
so"  and  her  father-in-law  correspondingly;  a  man  will  use 
corresponding  appellations  for  his  parents-in-law.     My  in- 
terpreter never  spoke  of  his  wife  except  as  "So-and-so's 
mother,"  mentioning  the  name  of  any  one  of  her  children; 
she,  in  turn,  referred  to  him  teknonymously.     Sometimes 
a  man  having  no  children  is  called  "Uncle  of  So-and-so." 
In  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge  Tylor's  interpreta- 
tion appears  untenable.     For  one  thing  it  fails  to  take  into 
account  that  the  mother,  as  well  as  the  father,  is  often  re- 
ferred to  in  terms  of  her  children.     As  for  the  supposed 
correlation  with  matrilocal  residence,  the  Australians,  the 
Melanesians,  and  the  Gold,  to  cite  only  a  few  instances,  are 
patrilocal.     On  the  other  hand,  among  the  matrilocal  Zufii 
and  Hopi  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  teknonymy  as  sup- 
planting the  son-in-law  taboo,  because  no  such  taboo  exists 
and   also  because   various   relatives   beside   the    father  are 
named  from  the  child.     Thus  neither  of  the  two  assumed 
correlations  holds. 


KINSHIP  USAGES  109 

Can  a  more  reasonable  hypothesis  be  advanced?  We 
shall  again  do  well  to  renounce  a  generic  theory  and  to 
attach  ourselves  to  the  correlates  of  teknonymy  in  its  par- 
ticular manifestations.  It  is  first  of  all  essential  to  know 
who  refers  to  whom  teknonymously.  Among  the  Gold  it 
is  the  wife  who  must  so  address  her  husband,  while  he 
may  call  her  by  name ;  prior  to  the  birth  of  her  first  child, 
the  woman  has  no  way  of  designating  her  husband  at  all. 
Correlated  with  this  phenomenon  we  find  that  a  brother 
may  call  his  sister  by  name,  while  she  lacks  the  correspond- 
ing privilege,  and  that  among  the  Gold  the  female  sex  is 
held  in  very  low^  esteem.  It  follows  that  in  this  tribe  tek- 
nonymy is  a  result  of  the  wife's  inferior  status;  it  is  a 
natural  solution  of  the  difficulty  that  a  woman  may  refer  to 
her  husband  neither  by  name  nor  by  a  term  of  relationship. 
Obviously  an  entirely  dift'erent  explanation  must  be  sought 
in  the  case  of  the  Hopi.  There  the  abundant  use  of  tek- 
nonymy is  especially  evident  in  the  case  of  relatives  by 
affinity;  and  it  is  hardly  an  accident  that  the  Hopi  vocabu- 
lary reveals  a  surprising  paucity  of  words  for  precisely 
these  relatives.  Here,  then,  teknonymy  may  have  developed 
from  the  necessity  of  referring  to  individuals  for  whom 
other  designations  were  lacking  and  may  have  been  secon- 
darily transferred  to  some  additional  cases.  In  short,  tek- 
nonymy again  furnishes  a  case  of  convergent  evolution,  and 
its  multiple  sources  must  be  looked  for  in  specific  condi- 
tions. Still  another  interpretation  will  be  offered  in  con- 
nection with  a  phenomenon  to  be  described  below.^ 

References 

^Lowie,  1919  (a):  35-40;  id.,  1912:  201;  id.,  1917  (a): 
40.  Rivers,  1914  (b)  :  i,  38,  367;  11,  160;  id.,  1906:  332. 
Junod :    i,  223. 

^  Jochelson,  1910:  75  seq.  Czaplicka :  120,  122,  127,  128. 
Radloff:  314,480.  Seligmann :  68.  Rivers,  1914  (b)  :  i,  41. 
Lehner:   426.    Reports,  v:    142.     Hewitt:    199,  208,  256,  266. 


no  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

Brown:  157.  Junod :  1,  230.  Frazer,  1912:  77-81,  84,  95. 
Spieth:  744.  Lowie,  1912:  213 ;  id.,  1917  (a)  :  48,91.  Freud, 
1912:  30  seq.    Tylor,  1889:   246. 

^  Jochelson,  1910:  75.  Man:  68.  Rivers,  1914  (b)  :  1,  35- 
43,  213,  291  ;  II,  508.  Lowie,  1912:  213  seq.;  id.,  1917  (a)  : 
69,  71,  74. 

*  Hocart,  1915  ;  641  ;  id.,  1913  :  loi.  Lowie,  1912:  204,215; 
id.,  1917  (a)  :   42,  79.     Rivers,  1914  (b)  :    i,  40,  45  seq. 

^Goldenweiser,  1910:  251.  Rivers,  1914  (b)  :  i,  223  et 
passim;  id.,  1906:   494.    Junod:    i,  228-236.     Parsons:    282. 

^  Tylor,  1889:  248.  Spieth:  217.  Frazer,  J.  G.,  1911 :  331- 
334.  Man:  61.  Seligmann :  65.  Laufer,  1900:  320.  Rivers, 
1914  (b)  :  I.  230,  279.  Lowie,  1917  (a)  :  92.  Kroeber, 
1917:   72. 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE    SIB 


BESIDES  the  omnipresent  family  group  we  frequently 
find  in  primitive  societies  a  type  of  unit  that  resem- 
bles the  family  in  being  based  on  kinship  but  otherwise 
differs  fundamentally  from  it.  Following  Professor  Phil- 
brick,  I  will  call  this  unit  by  the  good  old  Anglo-Saxon 
term  sib,  for  the  hopeless  confusion  of  nomenclature  in  this 
department  of  our  subject  imperatively  calls  for  a  new  word 
and  the  one  chosen  is  recommended  alike  by  its  alluring 
brevity  and  phonetic  suggestiveness. 

The  sib  ('clan'  of  British  anthropologists)  is  most 
briefly  defined  as  a  unilateral  kinship  group.  The  family 
is  bilateral :  to  say  that  an  individual  belongs  to  a  certain 
family  implies  that  he  recognizes  relationship  with  a  certain 
man  as  his  father  and  a  certain  woman  as  his  mother. 
The  sib  traces  kinship  through  cither  parent  to  the  total 
neglect  of  the  other.  If  a  tribe  is  organized  into  mother- 
sibs  ('clans'  of  most  American  anthropologists),  every 
child  regardless  of  sex  is  considered  a  member  of  its 
mother's  sib  and  takes  the  maternal  sib  name  if  there  is 
one.  If  the  tribe  is  organized  into  father-sibs  ('gentes' 
of  most  American  anthropologists)  every  child  follows  the 
father's  sib  and  takes  the  father's  sib  name.  The  other 
parent,  for  sib  purposes  counts  for  nought,  just  as  in  Euro- 
pean countries  outside  of  Spain  the  mother  is  neglected  as 
regards  the  transmission  of  the  family  name.  If  all  men 
and  women  inheriting  the  name  Smith  were  united  by  their 
common  patronymic  into  a  definite  social  group  set  apart 

III 


112  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

from  all  Browns  and  Joneses,  we  should  be  justified  in  say- 
ing that  they  formed  a  sib.  If  we  deny  to  them  that  desig- 
nation it  is  because  in  our  society  there  is  no  bond  whatso- 
ever connecting  even  all  those  Smiths  who  are  related  by 
blood;  in  inheritance  a  closely  related  Brown  takes  prece- 
dence of  a  more  remote  Smith.  But  for  purposes  of  illus- 
tration we  may  assume  a  Smith  sib  founded  on  actual  blood 
relationship.  Such  a  sib  would  include  the  ancestral  Smith 
with  all  his  sons  and  unmarried  daughters,  his  sons'  sons 
and  unmarried  daughters  and  so  on  ad  infinitmn.  In  order 
to  convert  this  unit  into  a  typical  primitive  sib  only  one 
change  is  required,  viz.,  making  affiliation  (except  for  cases 
of  adoption)  wholly  dependent  on  birth  and  unaffected  by 
marriage.  The  father-sib  thus  embraces  a  male  ancestor, 
his  children  male  and  female,  and  the  children  of  his 
male  descendants  through  males.  Correspondingly,  the 
mother-sib  includes  a  female  ancestor  with  her  children 
and  the  children  of  her  female  descendants  through 
females. 

From  the  foregoing  there  develops  at  once  a  significant 
distinction  between  family  and  sib:  the  former  is  a  loose, 
the  latter  a  fixed  unit.  Divorce  and  migration  rend  the 
family  asunder;  but  the  sib  bond  is  permanent.  This  trait 
is  well  exemplified  by  the  Hupa  phenomena  described  in  a 
previous  chapter.  It  was  shown  that  through  patrilocal 
residence  the  children  grow  up  in  the  paternal  village,  which 
the  daughters  leave  only  on  marriage.  Until  that  time, 
then,  a  number  of  brothers  with  their  children  would  form 
the  core  of  a  patrilineal  sib,  held  together  by  a  common  resi- 
dence. But  owing  to  local  exogamy  the  very  rule  that 
cements  the  union  of  the  group  leads  to  its  partial  dissolu- 
tion when  the  girls  marry.  The  married  woman,  whatever 
her  sentiments,  is  no  longer  a  member  of  the  same  social 
unit  when  she  has  settled  in  her  husband's  locality.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  the  anomalous  case  of  a  man's  serving 
for  his  bride  the  children  are  counted  as  belonging  to  her 


THE   SIB  113 

village,  contrary  to  the  normal  course  of  events.  But  if  the 
Hupa  were  organized  into  father-sibs,  neither  the  married 
woman  nor  the  children  of  men  serving  for  their  brides 
would  lose  affiliation  with  their  father's  sib,  the  facts  of* 
residence  being  then  irrelevant.  Any  individual  would 
automatically  take  the  patronymic  on  birth,  preserve  it  till 
death,  and  if  a  male  transmit  it  to  his  children. 

As  a  corollary  it  follows  that  the  sib,  while  eliminating 
half  of  the  blood-kin,  is  far  more  inclusive  than  the  family 
with  respect  to  the  relatives  who  are  recognized.  With  us 
a  third  or  fourth  cousin  hardly  ever  functions  as  a  member 
of  the  family  at  all ;  but  by  the  fixity  of  the  sib  bond  even 
the  most  remote  kinsman  is  still  known  as  a  member  of  the 
same  unit,  which  is  most  commonly  designated  by  a  name 
borne  by  all  members,  thus  leaving  no  doubt  as  to  sib  affilia- 
tion. The  feeling  of  community  thus  established  is  reflected 
in  the  terminology  of  kinship :  sib-mates  of  the  same  gener- 
ation usually  call  one  another  siblings,  and  from  this,  given 
the  primitive  attitude  tow^ards  names,  it  is  but  a  step  to  the 
feeling  that  marriage  between  sib-mates  would  be  inces- 
tuous. Hence  we  find  as  one  of  the  most  common  traits  of 
the  sib  the  law  of  exogamy.  The  intensity  of  the  sentiment 
that  marriage  should  be  outside  the  sib  varies  considerably. 
In  Australia  it  was  so  pronounced  that  a  man  or  woman 
guilty  of  transgressing  the  rule  w^ould  have  been  promptly 
put  to  death ;  and  a  stranger  would  not  marry  into  the  simi- 
larly named  sib  of  a  tribe  hundreds  of  miles  away  even 
though  actual  blood  connection  was  out  of  the  question.  In 
North  America,  on  the  whole,  the  native  reactions  were  of 
a  much  milder  cast.  The  Crow  would  mock  offenders,  com- 
paring them  to  dogs,  but  they  took  no'  steps  in  the  direction 
of  punishment.  Similarly,  the  Iroquois  evince  no  horror 
of  sib  incest,  punishing  transgressions  with  nothing  more 
painful  than  ridicule,  while  the  Miwok  content  themselves 
with  pointing  out  the  impropriety  of  marrying  within  the 
sib.    But  disregarding  the  character  of  the  reprobation  that 


114  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

non-exogamous  unions  evoke,  we  may  say  that  exogamy 
is  one  of  the  most  common  characteristics  of  the  sib. 

As  already  stated,  the  sense  of  kinship  among  sib-mates 
is  associated  with  a  special  type  of  kinship  nomenclature, 
the  most  remote  relatives  of  one  generation  frequently  re- 
garding one  another  as  siblings.  The  kinship  terminology 
of  tribes  organized  into  sibs  conforms  indeed  with  extraor- 
dinary frequency  to  what  I  have  called  the  Dakota  type 
(p.  60).  The  correlation  was  pointed  out  by  Tylor  and 
more  particularly  by  Rivers,  who  has  shown  how  well  such 
a  system  of  kinship  accords  with  a  sib  scheme.  Given  exog- 
amy, a  man  must  marry  a  woman  of  some  other  sib,  and 
his  brothers  and  certain  of  his  cousins  are  equally  eligible 
mates  for  her,  her  sisters,  and  certain  of  her  female  cousins. 
But  brothers  and  sisters,  as  well  as  far  more  remote  kins- 
folk of  the  same  sib,  are  barred  from  marriage  by  sib  exog- 
amy. Hence  it  is  quite  natural  that  the  father  and  father's' 
sib-mate  be  grouped  together  and  differentiated  from  the 
mother's  sib-mates.  The  alignment  of  kindred  in  sibs  goes 
hand  in  hand  with  their  alignment  in  terminology.  It  is 
therefore  plausible  to  convert  the  functional  connection 
into  a  causal  one  and  to  say  that  a  sib  organization  produces 
a  Dakota  terminology. 

Before,  however,  accepting  this  view,  we  must  inquire 
whether  there  are  not  other  possible  causes  that  could 
fashion  such  a  classification  of  kin.  And  here  we  may  re- 
call that  the  Dakota  alignment  is  also  singularly  in  harmony 
with  the  levirate  and  sororate  (p.  ^y).  There  is  thus  an 
alternative  hypothesis ;  or  possibly  sib  exogamy  and  these 
two  modes  of  preferential  mating  may  be  themselves  caus- 
ally connected.  To  this  point  we  must  revert  later.  But 
whatever  qualification  may  be  made  as  to  interpretation, 
the  empirical  fact  remains  that  tribes  organized  into  exog- 
amous  sibs  have  a  Dakota  type  of  nomenclature, — one  in 
which  collateral  and  lineal  kin  on  the  paternal  or  maternal 
side,   respectively,   are   merged   regardless   of   propinquity. 


THE   SIB  115 

Stimulated  by  Rivers,  I  have  tested  his  views  in  the  light 
of  North  American  data  and  found  that  practically  all  tribes 
with  exogamous  sibs  have  a  system  of  the  Dakota  type ; 
that  some  sibless  tribes,  whether  through  borrowing  or 
other  influences,  share  such  a  nomenclature ;  but  that  many 
sibless  tribes  distinguish  collateral  and  lineal  kin.  It  also 
appeared  from  personal  investigation  that  the  Hopi,  the 
only  Shoshonean  people  organized  into  sibs,  are  likewise 
the  only  one  with  a  Dakota  terminology.  The  generaliza- 
tion that  the  Dakota  nomenclature  is  connected  with  the 
sib  organization  thus  stands  firmly  established,  though  its 
meaning  cannot  be  determined  without  further  inquiry  into 
the  influence  of  the  levirate  and  sororate. 

To  revert  to  other  aspects  of  the  sib  unit.  The  rule  of 
'once  a  sib  member,  always  a  sib  member,'  suffers  hardly 
any  exceptions  as  a  result  of  marriage.  I  know  of  no  case 
whatsoever  in  which  a  man  enters  his  wife's  sib;  and  of  the 
contrary  possibility  the  only  good  illustration  seems  to  be 
that  of  the  Toda,  where  the  wife  adopts  her  husband's  sib. 
It  is  true  that  the  ancient  Athenians  enrolled  a  woman  in 
her  husband's  phratria,  but  the  Greeks  were  hardly  primi- 
tive and  their  regulation  seems  to  anticipate  our  modern 
law.  On  the  other  hand,  adoption  plays  a  more  important 
part.  When  a  man  adopts  a  child,  then  in  a  patrilineal  com- 
munity it  becomes  automatically  a  member  of  his  sib,  and 
in  a  matrilineal  community  of  his  wife's  sib,  just  as  would 
a  real  child. 

However,  it  is  not  these  individual  adoptions  that  have 
most  deeply  influenced  the  constitution  of  the  sib.  When 
we  investigate  by  genealogical  methods  the  average  sib, 
we  generally  find  it  impossible  to  derive  all  the  members 
from  a  single  ancestor.  W^hat  we  discover  is  a  series  of 
independent  lines  of  descent  merely  theoretically  united  by 
a  common  ancestry.  It  is  of  course  possible  that  the  native 
informants  have  simply  forgotten  the  bond  connecting  an- 
cestors of  the  more  remote  generations,  but  this  explanation 


ii6  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

cannot  apply  to  all  cases.  Thus,  in  taking  a  census  of  the 
Hopi  I  found  that  several  very  small  mother-sibs  were  not 
composed  wholly  of  individuals  related  to  one  another  by 
blood  but  could  be  separated  into  two  or  three  distinct  matri- 
lineal  groups  which  regarded  themselves  as  related  only  by 
a  legal  fiction.  What  we  know  of  primitive  logic  makes 
such  wholesale  adoption  quite  intelligible.  If  two  men  co- 
operating in  a  ritualistic  performance  adopt  each  other  as 
brothers,  their  respective  sisters  would  likewise  be  brought 
into  the  mutual  relationship  of  sisters,  and  ipso  facto  the 
descendants  of  the  'sisters'  would  be  viewed  as  though  they 
were  connected  through  real  sisters  and  theoretically  classed 
as  descendants  from  a  single  ancestress. 

Before  closing  this  preliminary  consideration,  it  is  well 
to  solve  what  may  otherwise  appear  as  a  puzzle.  If  the 
bilateral  family  is  ubiquitous,  how  can  the  sib  ever  coexist 
with  it?  Does  it  not  contravene  the  law  of  identity  to  pic- 
ture societies  which  simultaneously  recognize  both  parents 
and  yet  ignore  one  of  them?  Of  course,  recognition  and 
neglect  refer  to  distinct  phases  of  social  life.  As  we  recog- 
nize the  mother  but  ignore  her  with  respect  to  the  family 
name,  so  primitive  tribes  may  recognize  both  parents  in  a 
variety  of  ways  yet  disregard  either  for  specific  purposes. 

Hitherto  the  sib  has  been  considered  mainly  from  a 
morphological  angle ;  we  must  now  turn  to  the  functions  of 
the  sib.  These  are  best  illustrated  by  describing  a  selected 
series  of  sib  organizations.^ 

Types  of  Sib  Organization 

To  begin  with  a  simple  case.  The  Crow  Indians  are  di- 
vided into  thirteen  exogamous  mother-sibs.  These  units  are 
designated  by  nicknames;  one  is  called  'They-bring-game- 
without-shooting,'  another  'Bad-War-honors,'  a  third  'Bad- 
Leggings,'  and  so  forth.  Sib-mates  not  only  address 
one  another  as  though  they  were  blood-kindred  even  when 


THE   SIB  117 

not  related  but  actually  act  towards  one  another  as  such, 
gladly  giving  help  when  an  opportunity  offers.  Their  re- 
lations are,  however,  restricted  to  the  social  sphere  and  do 
not  in  any  way  touch  the  field  of  religious  activity.  The 
Crow  were  locally  divided  into  a  northern  and  a  southern 
branch,  but  in  each  were  found  members  of  all  the  sibs. 

When  we  turn  from  the  Crow  to  the  Hopi  of  northern 
Arizona,  we  at  once  meet  a  very  different  series  of  traits. 
The  Hopi,  like  the  Crow,  have  exogamous  mother-sibs  and 
there  is  a  close  social  bond  uniting  the  members  of  a  sib. 
There,  however,  analogy  virtually  ends.  The  very  names 
of  the  sibs  are  of  a  wholly  different  character;  they  are  in 
no  case  nicknames  but  are  derived  for  the  most  part  from 
natural  phenomena,  the  Snake,  Sand,  Lizard,  Cottonwood 
sibs  furnishing  typical  examples.  Property,  which  among 
these  sedentary  people  plays  a  greater  part  than  with  the 
roving  Crow  of  buffalo-hunting  days,  is  to  some  extent 
held  by  the  sib  and  inherited  in  the  sib.  Thus,  each  sib  has 
its  distinctive  territory  for  hunting  eagles;  and  the  most 
important  prerogative  of  assuming  certain  ceremonial  of- 
fices descends  in  the  sib,  being  held  by  actual  blood-kinsmen 
through  the  mother.  This  involves  what  to  us  seems  an 
outrage  on  equitable  inheritance  rules.  For  since  the  Hopi 
sibs  are  matronymic  and  exogamous,  father  and  son  are 
never  in  the  same  sib;  hence  a  father  cannot  pass  on  his 
ceremonial  privileges  to  his  own  child,  but  must  transmit 
them  to  his  nearest  sib  relatives,  his  brothers  and  his 
sister's  sons.  It  is  in  this  manner,  for  instance,  that  leader- 
ship in  the  Snake  fraternity  continues  to  be  inherited. 
The  tremendous  role  of  ritualism  among  the  Hopi  thus 
colors  their  sib  concept  and  sharply  differentiates  it  from 
that  of  the  Crow,  where  sibs  and  ceremonies  are  quite 
dissociated. 

The  multifarious  functions  with  which  the  sib  may  be 
invested  and  the  complexities  of  which  this  type  of  organi- 
zation is  capable  are  well  illustrated  by  the  Winnebago  of 


ii8  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Wisconsin.  Here  we  encounter,  in  the  first  place,  what  is 
known  as  a  dual  organisation;  that  is  to  say,  the  entire 
tribe  is  divided  into  two  sibs,  which  in  this  case  are  patro- 
nymic. These  two  father-sibs  are  exogamous  Hke  the  more 
numerous  sibs  of  the  Crow  and  Hopi.  They  are  symbohc- 
ally  connected  with  the  sky  and  the  earth,  one  group  being 
called  'Those  above,'  the  other  'Those  on  earth.'  Besides 
regulating  marriage  through  the  rule  of  exogamy,  these  sibs 
play  a  part  on  the  warpath,  in  ball-games,  and  in  one  of  the 
tribal  feasts,  for  on  all  these  occasions  individuals  are 
grouped  according  to  membership  in  the  two  sibs. 

An  important  complication,  however,  results  from  the 
fact  that  among  the  Winnebago  the  two  father-sibs  are  sub- 
divided,— the  one  into  four,  the  other  into  eight  lesser 
groups.  These  are  no  less  father-sibs  than  the  dual  divi- 
sions. Since  nomenclature  is  of  subordinate  significance, 
we  might  without  detriment  call  the  subdivisions  sub-sibs, 
or  sections  of  sibs,  or  invent  a  special  term  for  them.  I 
will  now,  for  convenience'  sake,  call  the  lesser  units  'father- 
sibs'  and  give  to  the  larger  Winnebago  groups  the  self- 
explanatory  designation  of  moieties, — an  old  Shakespearean 
word  derived  from  the  French  moitie,  'one-half.' 

The  sibs  into  which  the  patronymic  Winnebago  moieties 
are  divided  present  a  number  of  interesting  features.  They 
are  exogamous,  but  in  a  different  sense  from  the  Winne- 
bago moieties  or  the  Hopi  and  Crow  mother-sibs.  These 
latter  units  are  exogamous  in  their  own  right,  so  to  speak ; 
the  Winnebago  sibs  are  derivatively  exogamous,  i.e.,  they 
are  exogamous  because  the  larger  units  embracing  them  are 
exogamous.  The  exogamous  feature  is  really  not  distinc- 
tive of  them  but  of  the  greater  moiety.  On  the  other  hand, 
a  number  of  novel  conceptions  appear.  Each  sib  not  only 
bears  the  name  of  an  animal,  such  as  Snake,  Eagle,  Thun- 
derbird,  Bear,  but  further  postulates  descent  from  the  ani- 
mal species  in  question;  and  its  members  carve,  weave,  or 
engrave  representations  of  the  sib  animal,  though  there  is 


THE   SIB  119 

no  evidence  of  any  cult  in  its  honor.  Further  associated 
with  each  sib  is  a  set  of  distinctive  personal  names.  In  this 
respect  the  contrast  with  the  other  tribes  discussed  is  strik- 
ing. Among  the  Crow  there  is  no  connection  whatsoever 
with  the  personal  name  of  a  child  and  any  sib:  the  name- 
giver,  a  distinguished  tribesman,  calls  the  child  by  a  name 
reminiscent  of  his  deeds  or  experiences.  If  he  has  at  one 
time  struck  three  enemies  in  battle,  the  child  (whether  boy 
or  girl)  may  be  named  Strikes-three-enemies.  With  the 
Hopi  the  name  likewise  depends  on  the  name-giver,  yet  also 
on  her  sib,  which  is  never  the  child's  in  this  matronymic 
tribe;  for  she  regularly  belongs  to  the  father's  sib  and  be- 
stows a  name  referring,  often  in  mystic  fashion,  to  her  own 
sib.  Winnebago  practice  differs  in  that  each  individual 
gets  a  name  from  a  series  of  appellations  belonging  to  his 
own  sib,  such  names  frequently  suggesting  the  story  of  its 
mythic  origin.  Like  the  Hopi,  the  Winnebago  attach  to 
their  sibs  ceremonial  functions.  Each  unit  owns  a  sacred 
bundle  and  performs  the  ritual  associated  therewith.  Fi- 
nally must  be  mentioned  as  a  new  trait  the  association  of 
units  with  political  activities,  differentiating  the  sibs  from 
one  another.  Thus,  the  Bear  people  exercise  police  func- 
tions, the  tribal  chief  is  invariably  chosen  from  among  the 
Thunderbirds,  while  the  public  crier  is  always  of  the  Buf- 
falo sib. 

One  more  American  illustration  must  suffice.  The 
Mi  wok  of  central  California  are  divided  into  exogamic 
patrilineal  moieties  associated  with  Water  or  the  Bullfrog 
and  Land  or  the  Bluejay.  Unlike  the  Winnebago  moieties, 
those  of  the  Miwok  do  not  comprise  lesser  sibs.  All  natu- 
ral phenomena  are  divided  between  Land  and  Water  in 
rather  arbitrary  fashion,  and  this  theoretical  dichotomy  of 
the  universe  has  its  practical  counterpart  in  the  assignment 
of  personal  names.  These  are  remarkable  in  referring  not 
directly  but  symbolically  to  the  bearer's  moiety.  Ritualis- 
tically  the  Miwok  divisions  are  not  nearly  so  significant  as 


I20  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

the  Hopi  or  Winnebago  sibs.  Nevertheless  in  funerals  and 
puberty  performances  the  alignment  follows  that  of  the 
dual  division. 

Turning  to  western  Siberia,  we  find  the  Ostyak  divided 
into  a  considerable  number  of  exogamous  father-sibs,  each 
constituted  of  a  number  of  men  and  their  descendants.  Al- 
though the  sibs  frequently  comprise  not  only  hundreds  but 
thousands  of  individuals  and  though  many  of  the  members 
are  unable  to  trace  any  blood-relationship  among  them- 
selves, there  is  a  distinct  belief  in  an  ultimately  common 
origin.  The  male  sib-mates  keep  together  in  their  migra- 
tions and  there  is  a  spirit  of  brotherliness  that  makes  the 
rich  share  their  produce  with  the  poor  as  a  matter  of  course. 
The  sib  is  not  merely  a  social  but  also  a  political  unit ;  each 
has  a  headman  of  its  own,  whose  office  descends  to  his  son 
or  next  of  kin  and  whose  main  function  is  to  arbitrate  dis- 
putes. Several  sibs  are  combined  into  a  sort  of  league 
presided  over  by  a  prince.  Over  and  above  the  socio- 
political aspects  of  the  Ostyak  sib  there  remain  its  religious 
functions.  Each  has  its  distinctive  idols  kept  by  a  seer  or 
shaman,  and  the  members  join  in  rendering  sacrifices  and 
performing  other  ceremonies. 

Passing  to  still  another  region  of  the  globe,  we  encounter 
a  highly  developed  sib  system  in  Melanesia.  In  Buin,  Solo- 
mon Islands,  Dr.  Thurnwald  discovered  eight  exogamous 
matrilineal  sibs,  each  definitely  associated  with  some  bird, 
such  as  the  owl  or  parrot,  which  members  of  the  sib  neither 
kill  nor  eat.  Indeed,  the  Owl  sib  would  resent  the  slaying 
of  an  owl  by  men  of  other  sibs  to  the  extent  of  precipitat- 
ing a  blood-feud,  hence  none  of  the  sacred  animals  is  hunted 
by  any  member  of  the  tribe.  The  natives  do  not  trace 
their  descent  from  the  birds  but  conceive  the  mystic  kin- 
ship in  a  different  way :  the  Parrot  sib,  e.g.,  tell  of  a  human 
ancestress  who  wedded  a  parrot  and  gave  birth  to  a  bird 
of  that  species.  In  the  Admiralty  Islands,  the  obligations 
between  the  sacred  animal  and  its  sib  are  expressly  recog- 


THE   SIB  121 

nized  as  mutual,  so  that  men  of  the  AHigator  sib  are  be- 
Heved  to  be  safe  from  attacks  by  alhgators.  In  contrast  to 
the  Winnebago  system  that  of  Buin  is  quite  dissociated  from 
the  poHtical  organization  of  the  people.  To  mention  but 
one  fact,  the  succession  to  the  chieftaincy  is  from  father 
to  son  in  direct  contravention  of  the  matrilineal  scheme 
followed  by  the  sib. 

To  content  ourselves  with  just  one  more  illustration  for 
this  provisional  survey,  the  Kariera  tribe  of  Western  Aus- 
tralia is  subdivided  into  moieties  and  some  twenty  patri- 
lineal sibs  lacking  distinctive  names,  but  each  holding  a  defi- 
nite territory  by  an  inalienable  right.  Further,  each  sib  is 
associated  with  a  varying  number  of  animals,  plants  and 
natural  phenomena.  Thus,  one  sib  is  connected  with  the 
rainbow,  the  white  cockatoo,  the  March  fly,  two  species  of 
fish,  and  a  conch  shell.  Each  of  these  species  or  objects 
has  a  ceremonial  ground  of  its  own  within  the  domain  of 
the  correlated  sib,  and  it  is  there  that  special  ceremonies  are 
performed  by  both  male  and  female  members  for  the  pur- 
pose of  multiplying  the  animals  and  plants  in  question. 
Most  of  these  are  edible,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  there  is 
not  the  slightest  restriction  as  to  the  killing  of  the  animals 
or  the  eating  of  either  animals  or  plants  by  sib-mates.  As 
usual,  the  sibs  are  exogamous ;  residence  being  patrilocal, 
a  boy  grows  up  in  his  father's  sib  territory  and  since  he  is 
expected  to  marry  his  maternal  uncle's  daughter  his  bride 
will  come  from  another  sib  and  another  locality. 

These  examples  should  suffice  to  elucidate  the  diversity  of 
function  that  may  be  associated  with  a  sib  system.  The 
sib  thus  appears  as  an  extraordinarily  changeable  social  unit. 
It  is  commonly  exogamous  but  is  sometimes  only  deriva- 
tively so  (Winnebago).  It  may  be  linked  with  animals  and 
plants  towards  which  a  definite  attitude  is  prescribed  (Buin) 
and  it  may  be  wholly  divorced  from  any  such  connection 
(Crow).  It  may  be  a  local  (Kariera)  or  a  non-local 
(Crow)  unit,  a  political  (Ostyak)  or  non-political  (Buin) 


122  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

division  of  society.     This  variability  suggests  an  important 
problem.^ 

Unity  or  Diversity  of  Origin 

To  Morgan  the  sib  organization  appeared  to  rest  on  so 
abstruse  a  concept  that  he  felt  obliged  to  assume  a  single 
origin  of  all  recorded  sibs.  That  is,  he  supposed  that  the 
institution  had  sprung  into  existence  in  one  place  and 
thence  spread  over  immense  areas.  This  is  especially  re- 
markable because  Morgan's  theory  of  a  lazv  of  social  evolu- 
tion according  to  which  all  mankind  must  progress  from 
one  stage  to  another  favored  the  assumption  of  many  inde- 
pendent inventions  of  like  institutions  and  customs.  It 
may  be  conceded  that  if  primitive  man  had  evolved  an  arbi- 
trary and  elaborate  scheme  for  separating  certain  of  his 
kindred  to  the  exclusion  of  others,  it  would  be  improbable 
for  such  a  grouping  to  be  repeatedly  re-invented.  Below, 
however,  we  shall  see  that  the  classification  of  relatives 
characteristic  of  the  sib  is  a  very  natural  one  under  certain 
conditions,  so  that  the  improbability  of  parallel  and  inde- 
pendent sib  formation  does  not  hold.  Waiving  this  point 
for  the  present,  we  may  inquire  whether  the  resemblances 
of  sibs  in  different  parts  of  the  world  are  sufficiently  far- 
reaching  to  call  for  the  hypothesis  of  a  single  origin.  The 
variability  noted  above  is  hardly  favorable  to  that  assump- 
tion. The  argument  would  be  clinched  if  we  could  show 
that  even  in  a  restricted  area,  such  as  North  America,  there 
are  several  independent  centers  of  sib  diffusion,  for  then  a 
fortiori  one  origin  for  the  whole  world  would  be  out  of 
the  question. 

In  North  America  there  are  four,  or  possibly  five,  dis- 
connected areas  in  which  a  sib  organization  flourishes, — 
the  Woodlands  east  of  the  Mississippi,  the  Northwestern 
Plains,  the  Southwest,  and  the  Northwest  Coast,  to  which 
Central  and  Southern  California  should  possibly  be  added 


THE   SIB  123 

as  a  distinct  region,  though  some  are  inclined  to  consider 
the  sib  scheme  there  merely  a  ramification  of  the  South- 
western system.  We  are,  then,  confronted  with  the  prob- 
lem whether  these  several  organizations  have  evolved  inde- 
pendently— whether  possibly  even  within  each  continuous 
area  there  have  been  several  distinct  foci  for  the  develop- 
ment of  sibs — or  whether  all  the  sibs  of  the  continent  have 
sprung  from  one  source. 

East  of  the  Mississippi  and  even  including  the  southern 
Plains  to  the  west  there  is  an  immense  continuous  area 
peopled  by  tribes  of  varying  stock,  some  of  them  matro- 
nymic,  others  patronymic,  but  practically  all  sharing  the 
institution  of  sibs.  Passing  from  the  Iroquois  to  the  Meno- 
mini  and  Omaha  or  Choctaw,  we  cannot  fail  to  note  that 
the  sib  scheme  is  largely  fashioned  after  the  same  pattern. 
The  sibs  are  commonly  named  after  animals,  the  same  spe- 
cies often  recurring  in  different  tribes ;  each  sib  has  a  set 
of  distinctive  personal  names  for  its  members;  and  almost 
every  sib  system  is  bound  up  with  a  moiety  grouping  of 
which  the  most  constant  function  is  the  alignment  of  men 
in  athletic  games.  Even  remote  tribes  within  the  region 
defined  share  highly  specific  traits.  Thus,  the  Osage  in 
Missouri  have  moieties  associated  with  peace  and  war,  re- 
spectively, and  so  have  the  Creek  of  Alabama.  Exogamy 
is  universal,  sometimes  as  a  function  of  the  lesser,  then 
again  in  association  with  the  major  (moiety)  sib.  The 
resemblances  are  too  numerous  and  specific  to  be  explained 
by  chance,  but  must  be  explained  by  diffusion.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  rule  of  descent  divides  the  sib  systems  of 
the  area  into  two  categories,  which  also  correspond  closely 
to  the  geographical  grouping  of  tribes  if  we  accept  the  ap- 
proved theory  that  the  Iroquois  were  originally  a  southern 
people.  Thus  the  Iroquois  may  be  conceived  to  occupy  one 
connected  territory  with  the  matrilineal  Creek,  Choctaw, 
Chickasaw  and  Yuchi,  while  the  Central  Algonkians  and 
Southern   Siouans  represent  another  definite  geographical 


124  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

area.  Given  the  resemblances  mentioned,  we  certainly  can 
not  assume  more  than  one  center  for  the  notion  of  unilateral 
descent  in  either  region.  It  is  simply  a  question  whether 
the  difference  in  descent  requires  two  separate  inventions 
of  the  sib  or  only  one  for  the  entire  area.  In  either  case  we 
should  have  to  allow  for  diffusion.  This  is  obvious  if  only 
one  center  is  assumed.  But  even  if,  say,  the  matrilineal 
Iroquois  sib  and  the  patrilineal  Omaha  sib  represent  two 
ultimately  independent  inventions,  there  must  have  been 
subsequent  borrowing,  directly  or  indirectly,  because  of  the 
character  of  the  shared  features.  To  take  but  one,  sets  of 
individual  names  distinctive  of  sibs  do  not  occur  for  hun- 
dreds of  miles  to  the  west  of  the  area  under  consideration, 
hence  their  distribution  among  both  the  paternally  and  ma- 
ternally organized  peoples  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  on 
the  southern  Plains  is  a  sure  sign  of  borrowing.  For  my 
present  argument  it  is  not  essential  to  decide  whether  the 
Eastern  sib  area  corresponds  to  a  single  or  a  double  evolu- 
tion of  the  sib,  so  I  will  leave  the  question  open. 

This  question  may  be  waived  because  the  theoretical 
point  involved  is  settled  with  ample  decisiveness  by  a  com- 
parison of  the  Eastern  sibs  with  those  of  the  Northwestern 
Plains.  In  this  region  five  tribes  require  consideration, — 
the  Hidatsa  and  Mandan  of  North  Dakota,  the  Crow  of 
Montana,  the  Gros  Ventre  and  Blackfoot  of  Montana  and 
Alberta.  Of  these  the  Blackfoot  have  an  incipient  rather 
than  a  fully  developed  sib  organization :  they  have  nick- 
named localized  bands  with  predominantly  patrilineal  de- 
scent, but  without  a  fixed  rule,  so  that  a  man  may  change 
his  band  affiliation  and  that  of  his  children  as  well.  Exog- 
amy also  is  not  absolute  and  rests  on  the  suspicion  that  band 
mates  are  probably  related  by  blood.  In  the  winter  the 
tribe  broke  up  into  the  several  bands,  which  scattered  from 
economic  motives,  while  in  the  summer  they  united  for 
the  chase  or  ceremonial  purposes.  This  organization  is  al- 
most duplicated  among  the  Gros  Ventre  but  with  one  sig- 


THE   SIB  125 

nificant  modification;  corresponding  to  the  band  there 
is  a  full-fledged  sib  with  definitely  patrilineal  descent  and 
rigid  exogamy.  The  three  other  tribes,  all  members  of 
the  Siouan  family,  regularly  trace  descent  through  the 
mother. 

Now,  if  we  assume  that  all  the  Eastern  sib  systems  had  a 
single  origin  and  make  a  corresponding  hypothesis  for  the 
Northern  Plains  systems,  the  two  composite  photographs 
of  the  sib  concepts  in  the  two  areas  reveal  hardly  the  faint- 
est resemblance  to  each  other.  The  Eastern  sibs  are  almost 
invariably  named  after  animals  and  are  sometimes  con- 
nected with  their  eponyms  by  descent  or  definite  religious 
obligations.  In  the  Northern  Plains  animal  names  hardly 
ever  occur  and  never  in  connection  with  the  notion  that 
there  is  a  mystical  bond  between  the  eponym  and  the  sib 
members.  By  far  the  most  common  appellations  of  these 
sibs  are  of  the  nickname  variety;  memlDers  are  dubbed  the 
Ugly-ones  or  Those-who-do-not-give-away-without-return 
or  Bring-game-without-killing.  Equally  important  is  a  dif- 
ference already  alluded  to :  while  all  the  Eastern  sibs  have 
distinctive  sets  of  personal  names,  such  sets  are  never  found 
in  association  with  the  sibs  of  the  Northern  Plains.  Fi- 
nally, the  moiety  frequently  found  in  the  East  as  a  cere- 
monial or  exogamous  unit  and  in  connection  with  athletic 
games  occurs  only  among  the  Mandan  and  Hidatsa,  and 
there  only  as  a  relatively  unimportant  aggregate  of  sibs 
with  hardly  any  serious  function.  It  is  thus  clear  that  the 
sib  systems  of  the  East  and  of  the  Northern  Plains  repre- 
sent two  wholly  distinct  patterns  and  there  is  not  the 
slightest  reason  for  deriving  them  from  a  common  source. 

But  by  applying  established  ethnographic  knowledge  it 
is  possible  to  go  a  step  further ;  more  particularly  can  we 
trace  with  some  assurance  the  history  of  the  Gros  Ventre 
system.  The  Gros  Ventre  are  a  recent  and  relatively  small 
offshoot  of  the  more  southern  Arapaho,  a  people  lacking 
anything  in  the  nature  of  sibs.     In  their  new  home  the 


126  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Gros  Ventre  have  been  most  closely  affiliated  with  the 
Blackfoot,  and  the  twofold  effects  of  their  Arapaho  origin 
and  Blackfoot  contact  are  manifest  in  their  culture.  As 
already  explained,  the  Gros  Ventre  sibs,  except  for  their 
firmer  integration,  resemble  the  Blackfoot  bands  to  a  re- 
markable extent,  and  if  this  is  taken  in  conjunction  with 
the  known  relations  of  the  two  tribes  there  can  be  no  doubt 
of  an  historical  connection  between  the  Blackfoot  band  and 
the  Gros  Ventre  sib.  Now  the  Gros  Ventre  had  no  sibs 
when  they  broke  away  from  the  parent  tribe  and  since  they 
are  numerically  inferior  to  the  Blackfoot  it  is  highly  prob- 
able that  they  were  the  borrowers  and  by  perfecting  notions 
found  among  their  new  neighbors  evolved  a  genuine  sib 
system.  At  all  events,  the  germ  of  the  system  was  devel- 
oped either  by  one  of  the  two  tribes  or  by  both  in  con- 
junction. If  it  evolved  independently  of  the  other  systems 
in  this  region,  then  the  diverse  origin  of  sibs  in  North 
America  is  demonstrated  a  fortiori. 

The  Black foot-Gros- Ventre  sib  scheme  does  represent  an 
independent  development.  For  geographical  reasons,  if  it 
were  connected  with  any  other  Northern  Plains  system,  it 
would  be  connected  with  that  of  the  Crow ;  and  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  great  development  of  nicknames  for  social  units, 
a  feature  far  more  prominent  in  this  trio  of  tribes  than 
among  the  Hidatsa  and  Mandan,  suggests  that  this  par- 
ticular trait  has  actually  been  diffused.  But  there  resem- 
blance ends.  The  Crow  are  matrilineal,  the  Gros  Ventre 
and  Blackfoot  patrilineal ;  and  what  is  still  more  important, 
the  Crow  units  are  not  localized  but  are  all  found  in  each 
of  the  local  subdivisions  of  the  tribe.  The  Blackfoot  and 
Gros  Ventre  could  not  derive  the  basis  of  their  organization 
from  the  Crow,  because  that  basis  did  not  exist  there ;  and 
vice  versa.  Hence  in  this  restricted  area  there  are  at  least 
two  sib  patterns  that  evolved  separately,  making  at  least 
three  altogether  east  of  the  Rockies.  A  fortiori  the  gen- 
eral query  as  to  the  diversity  of  the  sib  schemes  of  the 


THE   STB  127 

world  is  answered,  but  it  may  be  well  to  envisage  the  re- 
maining North  American  areas. 

Conditions  in  the  Southwest  have  been  clarified  to  an 
extraordinary  degree  by  Kroeber's  acute  analysis,  one  of 
the  masterpieces  of  ethnographic  research,  which  I  will  fol- 
low in  summing  up  the  essential  facts.  The  Zuni  sibs  are 
exogamous  and  derive  their  names  from  animals,  plants, 
and  natural  phenomena,  but  there  are  no  taboos  after  the 
fashion  of  Buin  nor  is  any  veneration  extended  to  the 
eponym.  Descent  is  matrilineal.  The  sibs  are  associated 
with  ceremonies,  not  in  the  sense  that  they  perform  rites 
as  units  but  rather  inasmuch  as  specific  ritualistic  offices 
must  be  filled  by  persons  of  a  particular  sib.  These  essen- 
tial characteristics  are  shared  by  all  the  Pueblo  Indians, 
who  differ  mainly  in  the  presence  or  absence  of  moieties 
over  and  above  the  lesser  sibs :  while  on  the  Rio  Grande 
there  is  a  dual  organization  not  associated  with  exogamy 
but  with  important  ritualistic  and  political  functions,  in 
the  western  section  of  the  area  no  such  division  occurs. 
This  difference,  however,  pales  into  insignificance  in  view 
of  the  extremely  complicated  scheme  of  sibs  shared  by  all 
the  Pueblo  tribes  and  first  brought  to  light  by  Kroeber's 
efforts.  All  the  four  linguistic  groups  of  the  region  link 
together  sibs  in  larger  aggregates  after  the  identical  and 
purely  conventional  plan.  Thus,  the  Hopi  class  together 
the  Badger  and  Bear  sibs,  and  so  do  the  Zuiii,  the  Keresan 
and  the  Tanoan  villages.  Similarly  the  Fire  and  Coyote 
sibs  are  everywhere  coupled.  The  identity  is  as  far-reach- 
ing as  could  possibly  be  expected ;  w'here  a  modification 
occurs,  it  is  usually  of  an  obvious  character  involving  the 
substitution  of  a  Horn  for  a  Deer  sib,  or  of  one  bird  sib 
for  another.  As  Professor  Kroeber  puts  it,  "a  single  pre- 
cise scheme  pervades  the  .  .  .  organization  of  all  the 
Pueblos."  Nothing  comparable  is  found  outside  this  region, 
hence  the  system  of  this  area  stands  out  as  a  distinct  histori- 
cal entity  from  the  sib  organizations  hitherto  considered. 


128  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

It  is,  however,  possible  though  by  no  means  certain  that 
the  sib  organization  of  southern  Cahfornia  is  an  attenuated 
outpost  of  the  Pueblo  system,  as  Mr.  Gifford  has  suggested. 
The  geographical  concentration  of  sibs  in  that  part  of  the 
state  more  or  less  adjacent  to  Arizona  favors  that  view, 
and  it  is  supported  by  another  fact.  This  is  the  very  region 
of  California  that  is  culturally  linked  with  the  Pueblo  area 
in  other  respects,  notably  through  the  occurrence  of  pot- 
tery. Nevertheless,  there  is  one  serious  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  Mr.  Gifford's  hypothesis:  the  Calif ornian  sibs  are 
uniformly  patrilineal,  those  of  the  Pueblo  tribes  are  matri- 
lineal.  Were  there  clear  evidence  that  the  Calif ornians  pos- 
sess the  unique  Pueblo  scheme  of  arranging  sibs,  we  should 
of  course  be  obliged  to  assume  historical  connection  and  a 
change  in  the  rule  of  descent.  As  things  stand,  the  evi- 
dence is  suggestive  rather  than  conclusive  and  the  question 
must  for  the  present  remain  open. 

Far  to  the  north,  extending  from  the  southern  tip  of 
Alaska  to  the  northern  coast  of  British  Columbia  and  con- 
tiguous districts,  lies  the  last  sib  center,  represented  most 
characteristically  by  the  Tlingit,  Haida,  and  Tsimshian. 
The  Tlingit  are  divided  into  exogamous  Raven  and  Wolf 
(or  Eagle)  moieties;  the  Tsimshian  into  exogamous  quar- 
ters, two  of  which  are  named  Eagle  and  Wolf,  while  the 
remaining  two  bear  names  not  referring  to  animals,  though 
they  are  connected  with  the  bear  and  raven  respectively. 
Descent  is  throughout  matrilineal.  Associated  with  each 
of  these  tribal  divisions  are  series  of  highly-prized  cere- 
monial privileges  conveniently  comprised  under  the  heraldic 
term  'crest'  and  involving  among  other  things  the  exclusive 
right  to  use  designs  representing  certain  animals  or  objects. 
The  importance  attached  to  the  crests  gives  to  Northwest 
Coast  organization  its  distinctive  character.  Often  a  super- 
natural relationship  is  alleged  with  the  animals  in  question, 
but  taboos  and  religious  veneration  are  noticeably  lacking. 
Nor  is  it  always  the  eponym  from  which  the  principal  crest 


THE   SIB  129 

of  a  moiety  or  quarter  is  derived.  Thus,  the  Haida  Ravens 
have  the  killer-whale  for  their  main  crest,  and  amonj^  the 
Eagles  of  the  same  tribe  the  beaver  rivals  the  eagle  crest  in 
importance.  Accordingly,  in  tracing  the  historical  relations 
of  the  exogamic  divisions  of  the  three  tribes  the  crests  prove 
more  significant  than  the  designations ;  the  Tsimshian 
Ravens  turn  out  to  be  the  equivalent  of  the  Haida  Eagles. 
Furthermore,  not  all  the  members  of  a  division  need  share 
the  same  crest.  There  are  matrilineal  subdivisions  each  of 
which  owns  its  peculiar  crests.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is 
these  lesser  groups  rather  than  the  moieties  or  quarters 
that  are  in  the  strictest  sense  to  be  regarded  as  sibs,  for  it 
is  they  that  are  preeminently  bodies  of  real  or  putative 
blood  kin,  while  the  larger  exogamic  groups  are  not  derived 
from  a  common  ancestor  except  among  the  Haida.  Each 
subdivision  or  sib  is  a  localized  group,  presumably  at  first 
a  matrilineal  village  community  but  now  dispersed  over  sev- 
eral villages. 

The  organization  of  the  Northwest  Coast  resembles  the 
systems  of  none  of  the  other  areas.  It  is  furthest  removed 
from  the  system  of  the  Northern  Plains,  which  if  diffusion 
had  occurred  ought  to  resemble  it  most  closely  since  it  is 
geographically  nearest.  We  have  already  seen  that  the 
Plains  system  in  turn  is  radically  distinct  from  that  of  the 
nearest  Eastern  tribes  and  from  that  of  the  Pueblo  region. 
How  borrowing  could  have  taken  place  under  such  con- 
ditions passes  comprehension.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  sup- 
pose that  the  sib  idea  in  a  generic  form  was  once  generally 
distributed  over  North  America  and  has  since  become  dif- 
ferentiated in  the  several  areas,  for  I  shall  prove  later  that 
the  sib  never  existed  outside  the  regions  mentioned.  There 
is  then  no  escape  for  the  conclusion  that  the  sib  evolved  at 
least  four  times  in  North  America  and  accordingly  has  had 
a  multiple  origin  in  the  world.  Below  I  shall  point  out  that 
there  are  several  widespread  conditions  favoring  the  inde- 
pendent evolution  of  unilateral  kinship.^ 


I30  "       PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

SiBS  OF  Higher  Order 

The  survey  of  sib  systems  given  above  demonstrated  sibs 
of  different  order  in  the  same  tribe.  The  Winnebago  were 
found  to  be  divided  into  two  father-sibs,  each  of  these 
moieties  being  further  subdivided  into  lesser  father-sibs. 
In  British  Columbia  the  Tlingit  and  Tsimshian  exogamous 
groups  comprise  each  a  number  of  matrilineal  sibs  and 
by  an  allowable  extension  of  the  term  may  themselves  be 
called  sibs  since  there  is  an  undoubted  sense  of  kinship 
though  without  a  distinct  belief  in  common  ancestry.  Fre- 
quently the  higher  unit  is  of  a  rather  colorless  character. 
The  thirteen  Crow  sibs  are  linked  together  into  five  couples 
and  a  trio,  but  the  functions  of  the  larger  groups,  all  name- 
less, are  quite  insignificant.  They  are  not  exogamous,  the 
constituent  sibs  being  regarded  as  not  related  but  merely 
as  friendly.  Similarly,  the  Zufii  aggregations  have  no  in- 
fluence on  marriage  and  little  effect  on  social  life  apart 
from  ritualistic  activity. 

Where  such  lesser  and  greater  units  coexist,  the  question 
inevitably  arises  as  to  their  relationship.  It  is  conceivable 
that  the  greater  evolved  from  an  original  sib  by  subdivision, 
the  fragments  still  preserving  a  sense  of  their  former  unity 
and  cohering  as  the  sibs  of  a  sib-aggregation,  which  may 
or  may  not  be  a  moiety.  It  is  equally  conceivable  that 
social  groups  once  distinct  should  have  come  to  unite  for 
certain  purposes  yet  preserve  a  sense  of  their  pristine  sepa- 
rateness.  Again,  it  is  possible  for  two  radically  distinct 
plans  of  organization  to  be  coordinated  in  such  fashion  that 
the  unit  of  one  system  shall  embrace  several  units  of  the 
other. 

Morgan  pronounced  exclusively  in  favor  of  the  first- 
mentioned  course  of  development;  and  it  must  be  confessed 
that  there  is  a  good  deal  to  be  said  on  behalf  of  his  theory. 
It  has  considerable  a  priori  plausibility;  nothing  seems 
simpler  than  that  an  increasing  sib  should  split  up  into  seg- 


THE   SIB  131 

ments  retaining  a  certain  cohesion.  Further,  as  Morgan 
pointed  out,  there  are  instances  of  the  larger  aggregate 
bearing  the  name  of  one  of  its  subdivisions  and  also  of 
several  lesser  sibs  representing  different  species  of  one 
genus  designating  the  greater  division.  For  example,  in 
the  tripartite  organization  of  the  Mohegan  one  third  is 
called  Turkey  and  comprises  lesser  sibs  called  Turkey, 
Crane,  and  Chicken,  respectively;  another  third  is  called 
Turtle  and  embraces  the  Little  Turtle,  Mud  Turtle,  Great 
Turtle,  and  Yellow  Eel  sibs. 

Still  more  convincing  in  view  of  the  great  importance 
which  the  Eastern  Indians  attach  to  the  series  of  personal 
names  peculiar  to  sibs,  the  Onondaga-Iroquois  have  a  Big 
Snipe  and  a  Little  Snipe  sib,  which  not  only  suggest  fission 
by  the  similarity  of  designation  but  by  the  common  pos- 
session of  a  set  of  individual  names. 

Nevertheless,  while  fully  prepared  to  accept  the  occur- 
rence of  segmentation,  we  should  not  rashly  bar  alternative 
explanations.  There  is  no  reason  whatsoever  why  both 
division  of  a  unit  and  accretion  of  distinct  units  should  not 
have  occurred  in  different  places  and  at  different  periods. 
The  evidence  for  accretion  is  in  more  than  one  case  con- 
vincing, in  other  instances  at  least  suggestive.  No  one  can 
doubt  that  the  Crow  sibs  are  the  fundamental  units  of  their 
social  organization,  in  view  of  the  almost  complete  func- 
tionlessness  of  the  larger  aggregates.  Yet  it  is  readily  con- 
ceivable that  in  course  of  time  the  bond  between  linked 
sibs  would  have  grown  firmer  until  one  function  of  the  sib 
after  another  would  have  been  assumed  by  the  sib  couples 
and  trio.  In  the  corresponding  Hopi  case  I  was  repeatedly 
told  that  certain  sibs  were  connected  because  they  had  once 
united  for  ceremonial  purposes.  Here,  too,  the  step  from 
mechanical  aggregate  to  an  organic  synthesis  of  sibs  into 
sibs  of  higher  order  could  be  readily  taken.  An  extension 
to  a  new  group  of  the  kinship  terms  often  used  ceremoni- 
ally might  contribute  to  the  work  of  consolidation. 


132  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

In  short,  a  generic  solution  of  the  problem  must  be  re- 
jected, and  each  case  of  coexisting  sibs  of  greater  and 
lesser  order  must  be  discussed  on  its  merits. 

The  third  possibility,  while  of  great  interest,  is  largely 
so  in  an  academic  way.  It  is  easy  to  apply  the  principles 
used  in  comparing  sibs  of  different  tribes  to  sibs  of  differ- 
ferent  order  in  the  same  tribe  and  prove  that  they  are  units 
of  quite  distinct  character.  Take  exogamy,  for  example, 
as  one  of  the  most  important  and  widespread  functions.  If 
the  greater  unit  is  exogamous,  any  of  its  parts  must  be  so 
by  logical  necessity;  hence  it  is  possible  to  argue  that  the 
lesser  unit  is  not  really  exogamous,  accordingly  differs  in 
essence,  hence  in  origin,  from  the  larger  group.  Contrari- 
wise, the  large  unit  might  be  found  wanting  in  point  of 
exogamy  and  be  ruled  out  as  a  phenomenon  distinct  from 
the  exogamous  sib.  Such  arguments  cannot  in  the  nature 
of  the  case  be  frequently  refuted  but  neither  do  they  estab- 
lish the  historical  diversity  of  the  lesser  and  the  greater  sib. 
For,  if,  say,  the  process  of  segmentation  were  to  take  place 
in  accordance  with  Morgan's  view,  the  result  would  inevi- 
tably be  lesser  sibs  only  derivatively  exogamous. 

There  is  another  factor  that  should  be  considered  in  this 
context  as  tending  to  obscure  the  historical  relations  of  the 
lesser  and  the  greater  sib:  functions  may  be  transferred 
from  one  to  the  other.  Thus,  Dr.  Goldemveiser  holds  that 
the  Iroquois  moieties  were  once  exogamous,  while  to-day 
this  function  is  restricted  to  the  much  smaller  sib.  Con- 
trariwise, a  function  of  the  smaller  may  be  extended  to  the 
greater  unit,  and  if  m  full  force  it  would  be  impossible  to 
reconstruct  the  actual  history  of  the  case 

By  far  the  most  interesting  type  of  major  sib  is  the 
moiety,  though  it  also  occurs  as  a  simple  undivided  sib,  as 
among  the  Mi  wok  and  Yokuts  of  central  California.  Again 
it  is  necessary  to  remember  that  the  moieties  need  not  be 
exogamous.  Those  of  the  Hidatsa  have  nothing  to  do  with 
marriage,  and  the  Toda  moieties  are  even  positively  en- 


THE   SIB  133 

dogamous.  Nevertheless  it  is  the  exogamous  dual  organi- 
zation that  occurs  most  frequently  and  accordingly  demands 
special  attention. 

Where  there  are  only  two  exogamous  divisions,  there 
follow  by  logical  necessity  certain  consequences  that  sharply 
differentiate  a  moiety  organization  from  one  with  more 
than  two  exogamous  sibs.  Where  the  number  of  exoga- 
mous sibs  is  greater  (unless  special  rules  are  superimposed) 
a  man  may  marry  a  woman  from  any  sib  not  his  own. 
Thus,  a  Crow  may  marry  a  woman  from  any  one  of  twelve 
sibs;  twelve-thirteenths  of  the  marriageable  women  of  his 
tribe  are  his  possible  spouses.  But  with  only  two  exoga- 
mous divisions  a  Winnebago  is  restricted  to  half  the  women 
of  his  people,  a  very  considerable  difference.  There  is  still 
another  implication  of  social  significance.  Among  the  Crow 
a  man  has  special  relations  with  members  of  two  sibs,  of 
his  own  (i.e.,  his  mother's)  and  his  father's;  but  the  num- 
ber of  individuals  in  both  relatively  to  the  total  population 
is  small.  Given  a  moiety  system,  a  man  may  have  specific 
relations  with  all  tribesmen,  for  one  half  of  them  belong 
to  his  own  moiety,  the  remainder  to  the  moiety  of  that 
parent  through  whom  descent  is  not  traced. 

A  striking  feature  of  moieties  is  the  development  of 
reciprocal  services.  At  an  Iroquois  burial  the  functionaries 
are  always  selected  not  from  the  deceased  person's  but 
from  the  opposite  moiety,  and  the  same  holds  for  the  remote 
Cahuilla  of  southern  California.  On  the  coast  of  northern 
British  Columbia  certain  festivals  are  never  arranged  ex- 
cept in  honor  of  the  complementary  moiety.  It  is  a  puzzling 
question  how  this  reciprocity  is  to  be  interpreted.  Is  it 
fundamentally  a  matter  of  the  moiety  or  merely  incidentally 
so  because  either  moiety  includes  one  of  the  parents?  The 
Hidatsa  case  is  illuminating  because  there  we  find  that  in 
burial  it  is  not  the  non-exogamous  moieties  that  function 
but  the  sib  of  the  deceased  person's  father.  It  is  thus  pos- 
sible that  the  Iroquois  and  Northwest   Coast  phenomena 


134  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

belong-  in  the  same  category,  and  that  in  these  matrilineal 
tribes  reciprocity  merely  signifies  social  recognition  of  the 
father.  Other  functions  of  moieties  have  already  been 
cited.  Those  of  the  Iroquois  are  characteristic  of  the  East- 
ern Indians.  At  such  games  as  lacrosse  members  of  oppo- 
site moieties  are  pitted  against  each  other.  At  feasts  and 
ceremonies  there  is  a  corresponding  spatial  grouping;  one 
moiety  faces  the  other,  each  being  represented  by  a  speaker. 

It  was  shown  above  that  there  is  a  peculiar  fitness  in  the 
association  of  the  Dakota  type  of  kinship  nomenclature  with 
a  sib  organization.  But  that  fitness  is  especially  marked 
when  the  sibs  appear  in  the  form  of  moieties.  Certain 
features  of  the  Dakota  terminology  would  harmonize  in 
equal  degree  with  any  sib  system  regardless  of  the  number 
of  units.  For  example,  that  father's  brothers  and  even  the 
most  remote  of  his  male  cousins,  if  of  the  same  sib,  should 
be  called  by  the  same  term  as  the  father  might  happen  as 
readily  in  a  tribe  with  fifty  sibs  as  where  there  are  only 
two.  But  other  features  cannot  be  so  well  explained  from 
a  multiple  sib  organization.  Take,  for  example,  the  com- 
mon classification  under  one  head  of  the  mother's  brother 
and  the  father's  sister's  husband.  With  exogamic  moieties 
and,  say,  maternal  descent  I  belong  to  my  mother's  moiety 
A,  and  so  does  her  brother;  my  father,  on  the  other  hand, 
and  his  sister  are  of  moiety  B,  and  the  latter  is  obliged  to 
marry  a  man  of  moiety  A.  Thus,  the  father's  sister's  hus- 
band and  the  maternal  uncle  are  bound  to  belong  to  the' 
same  moiety,  and  if  the  nomenclature  reflects  primarily  the 
social  organization  it  is  proper  that  both  should  be  called 
by  a  common  term. 

Still  more  common  is  the  classification  of  cousins  into 
parallel  and  cross-cousins.  As  Tylor  pointed  out,  this,  too, 
is  admirably  consonant  with  a  dual  organization.  Assum- 
ing the  same  conditions  as  before,  we  find  that  if  a  man 
belongs  to  moiety  A,  his  brother  will  also  belong  to  that 
group;  both  must  marry  women  of  moiety  B,  and  their 


THE   SIB  135 

children  will  all  be  B.  Correspondingly,  two  sisters  of 
moiety  A  must  marry  men  of  moiety  B,  and  their  children 
will  all  be  A.  That  is  to  say,  parallel  cousins,  the  offspring 
of  several  brothers  or  of  several  sisters,  will  always  be  of 
the  same  social  group.  Not  so  with  cross-cousins.  For 
though  a  brother  and  a  sister  of  moiety  A  must  both  marry 
individuals  of  the  opposite  moiety,  the  brother's  children 
by  maternal  descent  become  members  of  B  while  the  sister's 
retain  their  mother's  affiliation.  Thus,  cross-cousins  are 
bound  to  belong  to  different  moieties. 

But  if  we  add  only  one  sib,  the  situation  changes.  A 
man  of  sib  A  may  then  marry  either  a  woman  of  sib  B  or 
of  C ;  hence  the  wives  and  consequently  also  the  children  of 
several  brothers  will  belong  partly  to  sib  B  and  partly  to 
sib  C.  and  there  will  be  no  reason  in  the  sib  alignment  for 
classing  them  together.  Thus,  the  presence  of  more  than 
two  sibs  does  not  explain  the  most  common  form  of  the 
Dakota  terminology  nearly  so  well  as  does  the  dual  organi- 
zation. For  this  reason,  among  others,  some  scholars  hold 
that  moieties  represent  the  earliest  type  of  sib. 

This  theory  is  extremely  captivating.  Besides  explaining 
the  Dakota  nomenclature,  a  dual  organization  is  certainly 
the  simplest  that  can  be  conceived.  Nevertheless  there  are 
important  objections  to  this  assumption.  In  the  first  place, 
the  distribution  of  moieties  is  by  no  means  so  extensive  as 
the  type  of  kinship  terminology  consistent  with  them.  The 
absence  of  a  dual  organization  with  exogamy  m  most, 
possibly  in  all,  parts  of  Africa,  and  among  many  American 
and  Asiatic  tribes  bids  us  hesitate  before  committing  our- 
selves to  the  hypothesis  of  a  dual  division  as  the  earliest 
form  of  all  sib  organizations.  It  may  hold  tor  Australia 
and  Melanesia,  but  that  proves  nothing  for  the  rest  of  the 
globe.  Of  course  it  is  possible  to  assume  that  moieties  once 
existed  where  there  are  now  more  numerous  sibs,  but  that 
is  arbitrarily  to  complicate  the  theory  with  a  baseless  auxil- 
iary hypothesis  in  order  to  save  the  simplest  interpretation 


136  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

from  the  onslaught  of  cruel  facts.  Then,  too,  we  may  rea- 
sonably doubt  whether  a  dual  organization  is  really  the  sim- 
plest for  primitive  man.  Logically  it  undoubtedly  is ;  and 
historically  it  would  be  if  a  primitive  tribe  always  developed 
sibs  by  fission.  But  if,  as  we  may  with  great  likelihood 
assume  for  many  cases,  exogamous  organizations  evolved 
by  the  fusion  of  originally  distinct  bodies,  then  it  is  far 
more  probable  that  matrimonial  relations  should  not  be  re- 
stricted to  a  single  external  group  but  should  be  established 
with  a  number  of  them,  the  coalescence  of  all  of  which 
would  yield  the  characteristic  community  organized  into  an 
indefinite  number  of  exogamous  and  intermarrying  sibs, 
which  might  subsequently  be  arranged  in  opposite  halves. 

This  is  not  an  altogether  hypothetical  condition  of  affairs. 
Among  the  Toda  the  moieties  are  endogamous  but  subdi- 
vided into  exogamous  father-sibs,  so  that  each  Toda  moiety 
corresponds  to  the  whole  of  an  exogamous  tribe.  Now 
within  the  Teivaliol  moiety,  which  embraces  six  sibs,  the 
one  named  Kuudr  is  numerically  preponderant  to  such  an 
extent  that  in  order  to  observe  exogamy  its  members  have 
married  nearly  all  the  available  members  of  other  sibs,  leav- 
ing very  few  of  these  to  intermarry  with  one  another.  Dr. 
Rivers  recorded  i6i  marriages  between  Kuudr  people  and 
the  rest  of  the  Teivaliol  as  against  i6  between  members  of 
the  other  five  exogamous  groups.  "Owing  to  the  enormous 
development  of  one  clan  (sib),  the  Teivali  division  has 
almost  come  to  be  in  the  position  of  a  community  with  a 
dual  marrying  organization  in  which  every  member  of  one 
group  must  marry  a  member  of  the  other  group,  but  there 
is  no  reason  whatever  to  think  that  this  is  due  to  any  other 
reason  than  the  excessive  development  of  one  clan  (sib) 
in  numbers." 

The  condition  approximated  by  the  Toda,  viz.,  a  second- 
ary arrangement  in  two  complementary  units,  was  according 
to  Dr.  Boas  attained  by  the  ITaida  of  the  Northwest  Coast 
of  America.     Dr.  Boas  suggests  that  several  tribes  of  this 


THE   SIB  137 

area  were  formerly  characterized  by  a  tripartite  organiza- 
tion. Thus,  the  THngit  in  some  localities  arc  not  strictly 
organized  into  moieties  but  have  a  third  exogamic  unit 
freely  intermarrying  with  the  other  two.  It  is  therefore 
possible  that  the  moieties  of  the  Tlingit  and  Haida  are  the 
result  of  a  reduction  in  the  number  of  original  units,  leaving 
two  equivalent  tribal  divisions. 

Finally  may  be  cited  the  data  for  the  Masai.  In  British 
East  Africa  Mr.  HolHs  discovered  four  sibs,  the  Aiser, 
Mengana,  Molelyan,  and  Mokesen ;  with  the  exception  of 
the  last-mentioned  these  were  also  found  by  Captain  Merker 
on  German  territory.  There,  however,  the  Aiser  and  Molel- 
yan are  after  a  fashion  united  in  opposition  to  the  Men- 
gana, whom  they  nickname  'Gluttons'  because  of  their 
legendary  transgression  of  a  dietary  taboo.  Apparently 
the  grouping  is  not  basic  and  has  not  affected  marriage  law. 
Nevertheless  it  does  illustrate  how  a  dual  division  may  arise 
not  as  a  pristine  form  of  organization  but  as  a  later  de- 
velopment. 

Such  concrete  data,  coupled  with  the  more  general  con- 
siderations given  above,  lead  us  to  reject  the  theory  that 
moieties  were  necessarily  or  even  frequently  the  most 
ancient  representatives  of  a  sib  organization.  That  the  dual 
organization  accords  better  with  the  Dakota  terminology 
than  other  forms  of  sib  organization,  is  noi  reason  for  as- 
suming its  uniform  priority  in  contravention  of  the  facts 
of  distribution  and  definite  evidence  of  the  secondary  origin 
of  moieties.* 

TOTEMISM 

Brief  as  has  been  our  survey  of  sib  organizations,  it  suf- 
fices to  illustrate  the  frequency  with  which  sibs  bear  the 
names  of  animals  and  plants,  other  natural  phenomena 
being  sometimes,  though  far  more  rarely,  substituted.  This 
mode  of  designation  is  fairly  often  coupled  with  beliefs  and 


138  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

practices  revolving  about  the  eponym.  Sometimes,  as  in 
Buin,  the  animal  is  held  sacred  and  there  is  a  strong  sense 
of  kinship  with  it  on  the  part  of  the  sib.  Elsewhere,  as 
among  the  Kariera,  groups  are  not  named  after  plants  or 
animals  but  are  nevertheless  definitely  associated  with  them, 
say,  through  the  performance  of  rites  for  the  magical  mul- 
tiplication of  the  correlated  fauna  or  flora.  Frequently 
there  is  a  belief  in  the  descent  of  the  sib  from  the  eponym. 
All  these  and  similar  usages  are  brought  together  under  the 
head  of  totemism  and  the  animal,  plant  or  object  in  ques- 
tion is  called  a  totem.  Among  the  Arunta  the  group  as- 
sociated with  an  animal  or  plant  is  not  a  sib  since  member- 
ship depends  not  on  that  of  either  parent  but  on  the  mother's 
belief  that  such  and  such  a  child  is  the  reincarnation  of  a 
particular  totemic  spirit.  Thus  siblings  are  often  members 
of  different  groups.  Nevertheless,  the  group  activities  so 
closely  resemble  those  of  neighboring  tribes  where  the  totem 
group  is  a  sib  that  it  would  be  unwarrantable  to  exclude  the 
Arunta  manifestations  from  the  category  of  totemism. 

Totemism  has  a  very  wide  distribution,  being  found  in 
America,  Australia,  Melanesia,  Africa,  and  parts  of  Asia. 
This  extensive  diffusion  deeply  impressed  the  scholars  who 
first  investigated  the  relevant  data,  and  following  the  theo- 
retical bias  of  their  time  they  assumed  without  further  in- 
quiry that  all  the  phenomena  labeled  totemism  represented 
identical  psychological  processes  and  had  originated  inde- 
pendently in  different  areas  through  the  psychic  unity  of 
mankind.  Latterly  it  has  become  fashionable  in  some  quar- 
ters to  deny  the  possibility  of  independent  cultural  inven- 
tions, and  accordingly  we  find  Professor  Elliot  Smith 
broaching  the  hypothesis  that  totemism  developed  in  or 
about  northeastern  Africa  and  thence  spread  to  the  four 
corners  of  the  globe. 

Opposed  as  these  interpretations  appear  at  first  blush, 
they  are  united  by  a  common  basis,  viz.,  the  conviction  that 
totemism  everywhere  is  essentially  the  same.     It  was  this 


THE    SIB  139 

na'ive  assumption  that  led  to  a  series  of  hypotheses  purport- 
ing to  explain  how  totemism  in  general  originated,  the  modi- 
fications found  here  and  there  being  treated  as  negligible. 
For  example,  there  was  a  theory  that  totemism  developed 
from  the  practice  of  animal  nicknames.  Such  appellations 
were  supposed  to  lead  to  explanatory  legends  making  the 
men  who  had  adopted  the  sobriquet  the  descendants  of  the 
eponym,  whence  there  followed  the  taboo  against  killing  or 
eating  a  member  of  the  species.  On  the  one  hand,  it  was 
these  prohibitions  that  aroused  interest  and  led  to  the  view 
that  totemism  was  a  form  of  religion,  or  even  a  necessary 
stage  in  religious  evolution ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  the 
exogamous  character  of  the  totemic  sib  that  was  stressed  as 
the  'social  aspect'  of  the  phenomenon,  which,  however,  was 
directly  deducible  from  the  belief  of  the  sib-mates  in  a 
common  totemic  ancestry. 

It  w^as  in  19 10  that  Dr.  Goldenweiser  approached  totem- 
ism from  a  quite  distinct  point  of  view.  Professor  Boas 
had  repeatedly  shown  that  apparently  simple  ethnological 
phenomena  were  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  result  not  of  pri- 
mar}'  unity  but  of  secondary  association.  Thus,  when  prim- 
itive tribes  call  geometrical  designs  by  animal  names  it  does 
not  follow  that  their  artists  attempted  to  represent  animals, 
and  that  their  sketches  were  subsequently  conventionalized 
into  lozenges  or  triangles.  These  patterns  can  sometimes  be 
proved  to  have  had  an  independent  origin  and  to  have  re- 
ceived a  convenient  designation  at  a  later  period.  Further, 
Boas  had  proved  that  the  resemblances  noted  between  re- 
mote tribes  were  often  illusory:  they  represented  no  basic 
likeness  comparable  to  the  homologies  of  the  anatomist  but 
rather  correspond  to  his  superficial  analogies.  That  is  to 
say,  ethnologists  had  erred  in  the  same  sense  in  which  the 
untutored  mind  errs  when  it  classifies  the  w^hale  as  a  fish 
and  the  bat  as  a  bird. 

Applying  these  principles  to  what  had  been  regarded  as 
a  uniform  complex  of   features,  Goldenweiser  discovered 


I40  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

that  totemism,  instead  of  being  everywhere  ahke,  differed 
to  an  extraordinary  degree.  For  example,  Central  Aus- 
tralian totemism  with  its  emphasis  on  ritualistic  perform- 
ances for  the  magical  increase  of  the  totem  differs  toto  coelo 
from  that  of  British  Columbia,  where  artistic  representa- 
tion of  the  totem  and  the  guardian  spirit  idea  are  in  the 
foreground  of  aboriginal  consciousness.  Passing  in  review 
one  after  another  of  the  alleged  criteria  of  totemism,  this 
author  found  every  one  of  them  wanting  in  even  approxi- 
mate universality.  Exogamy  may  or  may  not  be  coupled 
with  the  other  features,  totemic  taboos  may  be  dissociated 
from  a  totemic  name  for  the  group  practising  them  ;  descent 
from  the  totem  may  or  may  not  be  postulated ;  and  so  forth. 
Thus  no  feature  or  set  of  features  was  found  to  be  neces- 
sary or  characteristic  of  totemism,  hence  none  was  regarded 
as  essentially  primary  in  either  a  psychological  or  an  histori- 
cal sense.  If,  then,  there  be  any  bond  linking  the  totemic 
manifestations  of  various  peoples,  it  cannot  lie  in  the  com- 
mon possession  of  certain  traits  but  only  in  the  mutual 
relations  of  these  traits.  Here  Goldenweiser  reverted  to 
the  earlier  distinction  of  a  social  and  a  religious  phase  of 
the  phenomenon.  But  his  inquiry  had  demonstrated  that 
the  religious  factor  was  often  of  a  most  attenuated  kind ; 
hence  in  his  final  formulation  a  less  pretentious  term  was 
substituted  and  totemism  was  defined  as  "the  tendency  of 
definite  social  units  to  become  associated  with  objects  and 
symbols  of  emotional  value" ;  or  as  "the  process  of  specific 
socialization  of  objects  and  symbols  of  emotional  value." 
The  socialization  of  emotional  values  within  groups  tracing 
descent  in  definite  fashion  saved  totemism  from  becoming 
a  catchword  not  corresponding  to  any  reality  whatsoever. 
While  the  psychological  unity  of  the  phenomenon  was  thus 
vindicated,  its  historical  diversity  was  insisted  upon. 
Owing  to  the  heterogeneous  character  of  the  totemic  com- 
plex and  the  complexities  of  historical  evolution,  Dr.  Gold- 
enweiser concluded  that  such  resemblances  as  occurred  are 


THE   SIB  141 

the  result  of  convergent  evolution.  That  is  to  say,  in  one 
region  one  feature  had  been  the  starting-point,  in  another 
a  different  one ;  and  only  through  later  combinations  of 
these  elements  had  the  complexes  come  to  present  the  ob- 
serv^ed  similarities.  A  ready  explanation  for  the  frequent 
combination  of  certain  particular  elements  was  found  in 
the  wide  distribution  of  such  traits  as  taboos,  animal  names, 
etc.,  which  made  their  coalescence  a  matter  of  mathematical 
probability. 

Before  commenting  on  these  views,  we  had  better  refer 
briefly  to  a  far  bulkier  contemporaneous  publication  by  Dr. 
J.  G.  Frazer,  in  which  a  painstaking  compilation  of  rele- 
vant data  is  followed  by  a  quite  different  theory  of  totem- 
ism.  With  respect  to  some  specific  conclusions,  to  be  sure, 
both  authors  are  in  accord.  Frazer  no  less  than  Golden- 
weiser  dissociates  exogamy  as  a  non-essential  part  of  the 
totemic  complex.  It  is  when  Frazer  derives  the  totemic 
complex  minus  exogamy  from  a  single  psychological  source, 
the  Central  Australian  belief  that  every  child  is  the  rein- 
carnation of  the  totemic  spirit  supposed  to  haunt  the  spot 
where  its  mother  first  becomes  aware  of  conception,  that  he 
displays  a  fundamental  departure  from  the  method  of  his 
fellow-student.  For  while  the  belief  mentioned  seems  to 
Frazer  a  sufficient  explanation  for  the  taboos,  belief  in 
descent,  and  so  on,  Goldenweiser  regards  these  residual 
phenomena  as  not  less  independent  of  one  another  than  is 
exogamy  from  any  and  all  of  them.  Frazer,  in  other  words, 
does  assume  an  inner  nexus  among  the  several  symptoms 
of  totemism  (apart  from  exogamy)  and  regards  one  of 
them,  the  identification  of  totemite  and  totem  as  the  basic 
one.  Goldenweiser  considers  none  of  the  symptoms  as 
fundamental  and  their  combination  is  to  him  a  conjunction 
in  Hume's  sense  of  the  term,  an  empirical  union  of  traits, 
rather  than  an  organic  synthesis.  His  stressing  of  the 
mere  relation  of  the  elements  to  each  other  is  diametrically 
opposed  to  Frazer' s  adherence  to  a  particular  symptom, 


142  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Further,  Frazer's  selection  of  a  Central  Australian  notion 
as  the  core  of  all  totemism  would  impress  Goldenweiser  as 
the  height  of  absurdity.  He  might  concede  that  Frazer's 
conceptional  theory  had  some  application  in  Central  Aus- 
tralia but  certainly  not  that  it  could  hold  for  other  areas 
whence  comparable  beliefs  have  never  been  reported. 

Our  random  selection  of  totemic  data  in  the  survey  of 
sib  organization  suffices  to  corroborate  the  destructive  re- 
sults of  Dr.  Goldenweiser's  acute  analysis.  What  connects 
the  totemism  of  the  Kariera  with  that  of  the  Buin?  The 
Kariera  totem  groups  are  nameless  local  sibs  with  multiple 
totems,  which  are  neither  worshipped  nor  tabooed  but  only 
magically  increased.  The  Buin  totemites  hold  their  ani- 
mals, one  for  each  sib,  sacred  to  the  point  of  avenging  an 
injury  inflicted  on  them  by  other  sibs  and  have  no  rites 
for  the  propagation  of  the  species.  In  the  one  case  there 
is  no  kinship  between  totem  and  sib,  in  the  other  a  legend- 
ary basis  exists  for  the  sense  O'f  relationship,  though  there 
is  no  belief  in  descent.  The  Winnebago,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  totemic  descent,  totemic  names  for  groups  as  well  as 
persons,  artistic  representations  of  the  totems,  but  no  taboos 
or  cult.  There  is  not  the  slightest  reason  for  assuming  that 
phenomena  so  heterogeneous  have  had  a  common  origin 
either  historically  or  psychologically;  and  if  all  of  them  are 
to  be  labeled  as  totemic  it  will  not  be  for  any  community  of 
specific  traits  but  for  some  such  highly  abstract  formal  re- 
semblance as  that  defined  by  Goldenweiser. 

But  is  Dr.  Goldenweiser's  definition  of  the  totemic  con- 
tent, attenuated  as  it  is,  sufficiently  so  to  cover  all  cases? 
I  am  not  persuaded  that  it  is.  The  Buin  totems  certainly 
represent  emotional  values ;  those  of  the  Winnebago  pos- 
sibly; those  of  the  Kariera  only  by  a  stretching  of  terms 
that  would  convert  black  into  white.  Why  not  content 
ourselves  with  noting  that  the  several  social  groups  of  one 
tribe  are  commonly  differentiated  by  distinct  names  often 
borrowed  from  the  organic  kingdoms,  or  by  heraldic  devices 


THE   SIB  143 

of  similar  origin,  or  by  distinctive  taboos,  or  what  not? 
Why  not  abandon  the  vain  effort  to  thrust  into  one  Pro- 
crustean bed  a  system  of  naming,  a  system  of  heraldry,  and 
a  system  of  religious  or  magical  observances?  Each  of 
these  might  with  profit  be  studied  separately  and  where  con- 
nections occur  their  rationale  must  of  course  be  likewise 
investigated.  But  the  fact  that  they  represent  diverse  phe- 
nomena should  not  be  obscured  by  the  deceptive  caption  of 
'emotional  values.' 

In  a  later  paper  Dr.  Goldenweiser  has  greatly  clarified 
the  problem  by  a  searching  analysis  of  Iroquois  totemism 
so-called.  The  Iroquois  sibs  are  named  after  birds  and 
beasts  and  are  the  exogamous  units  of  today,  though  for- 
merly this  function  was  probably  characteristic  of  the 
greater  sib  or  moiety.  But  there  is  no  taboo  against  kill- 
ing the  sib  animal,  indeed  the  very  notion  of  such  a  prohibi- 
tion impresses  the  Indians  as  absurd.  Nor  is  there  a  trace 
of  any  belief  in  descent  from  the  eponymous  species  or  of 
any  sense  of  kinship  with  them.  One  of  the  most  prominent 
features  of  the  Iroquois  system  is  the  existence  of  sets  of 
individual  names,  each  sib  having  its  distinctive  series ;  but 
these  names  are  in  no  way  connected  with  the  animals.  It 
is  true  that  carvings  of  the  eponyms  were  placed  over  the 
doors  of  houses  in  which  the  correlated  sibs  predominated; 
yet  there  is  no  proof  that  the  right  to  such  carvings  was 
confined  to  members.  Are,  then,  the  Iroquois  sibs  to  be 
regarded  as  totemic?  Do  the  Iroquois  possess  a  totemic 
complex?  Goldenweiser's  answer  is  in  the  negative.  Ani- 
mal names  are  too  common  a  feature  in  primitive  society, 
he  argues,  to  permit  the  inference  of  a  special  relation  be- 
tween a  species  and  the  group  merely  deriving  from  it  its 
name.  Only  when  the  name  involved  a  "psychological  as- 
sociation with  the  animal  in  the  minds  of  the  givers  or  the 
receivers  of  the  name,  or  of  both,"  or  when  the  exogamy  is 
traceable  to  this  association,  is  it  desirable  to  speak  of  totem- 
ism.   Otherwise  sibs  with  animal  designations  have  no  mor^ 


144  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

claim  to  be  considered  totemic  than  sibs  with  nicknames, 
local  names,  or  appellations  derived  from  a  human  ancestor. 

As  Dr.  Goldenweiser  rightly  insists,  the  question  is  not 
a  purely  terminological  one.  It  is  at  bottom  this,  whether 
merely  naming  groups  after  animals  is  tantamount  to  defi- 
nite beliefs  and  practices  associated  with  the  eponyms.  The 
importance  of  names  for  the  aboriginal  mind  is  undoubted ; 
but  whether  it  necessarily  results  in  a  totemic  complex  is  a 
matter  for  empirical  inquiry.  Dr.  Goldenweiser's  negative 
seems  eminently  reasonable  and  indeed  might  properly  l^e 
supplemented  with  a  refusal  to  class  together  the  various 
beliefs  and  performances.  To  go  through  rites  for  the  in- 
crease of  an  edible  species  is  not  the  same  as  to  regard  an 
animal  or  plant  with  superstitious  awe,  and  that  in  turn 
differs  from  a  mere  taboo. 

In  a  still  more  recent  contribution  to  the  subject  Dr. 
Goldenweiser  assumes  the  position  that  totemism  is  after 
all  a  specific  phenomenon,  being  characterized  by  "the  as- 
sociation of  the  totemic  content  with  a  clan  (sib)  system." 
This  is  said  to  be  a  conclusion  based  on  the  introduction 
of  an  historico-geographical  point  of  view :  Dr.  Golden- 
weiser now  argues  that  the  sib  and  the  totemic  complex  are 
almost  indissolubly  linked,  complexes  without  sibs  and  sibs 
without  complexes  being  'very  rare.' 

I  consider  this  argument  to  be  singularly  infelicitous  and 
to  contravene  some  of  the  most  valuable  results  of  Dr. 
Goldenweiser's  earlier  studies.  It  is  utterly  inconceivable 
to  me  how  in  the  light  of  data,  many  of  which  were  cited  by 
himself  in  his  critical  study,  Dr.  Goldenweiser  can  claim  an 
historico-geographical  sanction  for  his  astounding  gener- 
alization. The  Crow,  Hidatsa,  Gros  Ventre,  Apache  all 
have  sibs  without  even  totemic  names ;  and  since  Dr.  Gold- 
enweiser does  not  repudiate  his  conclusion  that  the  name 
by  itself  does  not  establish  totemism,  we  may  add  the  Iro- 
quois and  at  least  some  of  the  Pueblo  Indians.  What  Si- 
berian tribe  is  known  to  be  organized  into  totemic  sibs? 


THE   SIB  145 

And  in  what  sense  are  the  Arunta  totem  groups  sibs?  The 
conclusion  that  totemism  is  an  "all  but  universal  adjunct"  of 
the  sib  organization  is  reached  simply  by  ignoring  awkward 
contradictory  facts.  It  is  regrettable  that  so  keen  and 
erudite  a  thinker  should  have  deviated  so  far  in  his  latest 
discussion  from  the  straight  and  narrow  path  of  historico- 
ethnographical  investigation. 

To  sum  up  my  own  position  on  the  subject  of  totemism. 
I  am  not  convinced  that  all  the  acumen  and  erudition  lav- 
ished upon  the  subject  has  established  the  reality  of  the 
totemic  phenomenon.  Assuredly  Professor  Boas  is  right 
when  he  points  out  the  tendency  of  kinship  groups  to  be- 
come associated  with  "certain  types  of  ethnic  activities." 
But  this  is  merely  saying  what  seems  self-evident,  to  wit, 
that  definite  social  groups  do  not  exist  in  vacuo,  so  to  speak, 
but  must  l>e  characterized  by  some  function  or  other.  The 
question  is  whether  the  nature  of  the  associated  activities 
does  not  matter  so  long  as  something  is  associated,  and 
this  view  I  cannot  accept  as  justifiable.  For  me  the  prob- 
lem of  totemism  resolves  itself  into  a  series  of  specific 
problems  not  related  to  one  another.  The  association  of 
animal  names  with  sibs  is  one  problem  and  where  it  ap- 
pears in  a  continuous  area  as  in  the  Eastern  United  States 
its  historical  implications  are  obvious :  there  has  been  bor- 
rowing of  a  mode  of  sib  designation.  This  has  nothing 
whatsoever  to  do  with  the  Kariera  and  Arunta  custom  of 
multiplying  the  supply  of  edible  plants  and  animals,  but 
that  such  a  usage  is  shared  by  Central  and  West  Australian 
tribes  is  an  important  fact  with  similarly  clear  historical 
implications.  That  sibs  fairly  often  taboo  the  eponymous 
animals  is  a  phenomenon  of  great  psychological  interest 
well  meriting  study.  But  only  confusion  can  result  from 
envisaging  what  is  disparate  under  a  single  head.^ 

References 

^Philbrick:  114.  Rivers,  1914  (a).  Lewie,  191 5:  223 
seq. ;  id.,  1917  (b),  Chap.  v. 


146  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

^  Lowie,  1912:  182-246.  Radin,  191 5.  Gifford,  1916:  14O- 
148.  Castren,  1853:  286  seq.  Thurnwald,  1912:  316,  327, 
Brown :    145,  160. 

^  Morgan,  1877:  Pt.  11,  Chap.  xv.  Skinner:  8-21.  Fletcher 
and  La  Flesche:  38,  134-198.  Dorsey,  J.  O. :  252.  Swanton, 
1912:  593  seq.  Lowie.  1912:  186-207;  id.,  1917  (a):  7-22. 
Wissler,  191 1:  18.  Kroeber,  1908:  147  seq..  id.,  1917  (a): 
91-150.    Gifford,  1918:   155-218.    Boas,  1916  (a)  :  478-530. 

*  Goldenweiser,  1912 :  464  seq.  Gifford,  1918:  187.  Rivers, 
1906:  507.  Boas,  1916  (a):  478-530.  Hollis,  I9P5 :  260. 
Merker:   16-18. 

^  Smith:  33.  Goldenweiser,  1910;  id.,  1913:  370;  id.,  1918: 
280.  Boas,  191 1 :  Chap,  viii;  id.,  1916  (b)  :  319.  Frazer, 
J.  G..  1910:   IV,  3-71. 


1 


CHAPTER  VII 


HISTORY   OF  THE  SIB 


THE  bilateral  family  is  an  absolutely  universal  insti- 
tution; on  the  other  hand,  the  unilateral  sib  has  only 
a  restricted  though  wide  distribution.  It  is  true  that  many 
of  the  more  highly  civilized  nations  of  the  world,  like  the 
Greeks,  are  known  to  have  passed  through  a  period  in  which 
they  were  organized  into  sibs.  But  this  may  simply  indi- 
cate that  at  a  certain  level  the  sib  system  tends  to  decay, 
leaving  the  always  coexisting  family  in  possession  of  the 
field :  it  does  not  by  any  means  prove  that  the  sib  is  older 
than  the  family.  A  survey  of  the  data  clearly  shows  that 
the  family  is  omnipresent  at  every  stage  of  culture ;  that  at 
a  higher  level  it  is  frequently  coupled  with  a  sib  organiza- 
tion ;  and  that  at  a  still  higher  level  the  sib  disappears. 

Priority  of  the  Family 

This  simple  statement  of  fact,  however,  runs  counter  to 
one  of  the  most  generally  accepted  and  least  warrantable  of 
Morgan's  speculations.  For  Morgan  held  that  the  family 
was  a  late  product  which  had  been  almost  uniformly  pre- 
ceded by  the  sib.  In  his  scheme  the  exogamous  sib  repre- 
sents a  remarkable  reformatory  movement  that  retrenched 
the  intermarriage  of  blood  relatives,  gained  a  foothold 
through  the  biologically  beneficial  results  produced  thereby, 
and  spread  in  consequence  over  an  enormous  area.  In  this 
theory  two  elements  require  examination, — the  alleged  ef- 
fects of  the  sib  system,  and  its  pretended  distribution. 

147 


148  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

On  the  former  point  we  can  afford  to  be  brief.  Apart 
from  the  fact  that  modern  biological  opinion  is  by  no  means 
agreed  as  to  the  necessarily  evil  results  of  inbreeding,  there 
are  certain  obvious  difficulties  in  the  way  of  Morgan's  in- 
terpretation. It  would  not  be  fair  to  object  that  sib  exo- 
gamy does  not  prevent  the  union  of  father  and  daughter  in 
a  matrilineal,  and  of  mother  and  son  in  a  patrilineal,  so- 
ciety. For  Morgan  believes  that  incestuous  relations  be- 
tween parent  and  child  had  been  eliminated  at  an  earlier 
stage,  and  that  the  sib  merely  added  to  matrimoniaj  restric- 
tions by  barring  the  union  of  siblings.  But  what  Morgan 
may  fairly  be  criticized  for  is  his  failure  to  realize  that 
exogamy  does  much  more  than  proscribe  the  marriage  of 
brothers  and  sisters :  it  precludes  sexual  relations  between 
certain  cousins  of  the  most  remote  degree  of  propinquity, 
nay,  even  between  wholly  unrelated  sib  members  while  in 
no  way  interfering  with  the  relations  of  even  first  cousins 
who  are  not  of  the  same  sib.  Cross-cousin  marriage  is  per- 
fectly consistent  with  sib  exogamy;  but  so  are  also  mar- 
riages between  certain  parallel  cousins.  For  example,  in  a 
tripartite  matrilineal  tribe  two  brothers  of  sib  A  may  marry 
women  of  sibs  B  and  C,  respectively,  and  their  children 
will  not  be  prevented  from  marrying  by  the  rules  of  the 
sib.  What  the  sib,  then,  really  does  is  to  bar  incidentally 
the  union  of  certain  close  kinsfolk  along  with  that  of  re- 
mote and  putative  kindred,  while  permitting  the  marriage 
of  certain  other  close  relatives. 

The  assumption  as  to  the  practically  universal  occur- 
rence of  the  sib  in  primitive  society  requires  more  extended 
scrutiny.  I  shall  endeavor  to  establish  the  counter-proposi- 
tion that  the  sib  is  lacking  precisely  among  the  more  primi- 
tive tribes  and  as  a  rule  appears  only  when  horticultural  or 
pastoral  activities  have  partly  or  wholly  superseded  the 
chase  as  the  basis  of  economic  existence.  From  this,  T 
argue,  there  directly  follows  the  chronological  priority  of 
the    family.      But   in   order   to   give   cogency   to   this   ar- 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SIB  149 

gumentation  it  is  necessary  to  ward  off  one  hostile  criticism. 

It  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  the  peoples  of  the  world  do 
not  advance  uniformly  in  the  several  departments  of  cul- 
ture. The  Eskimo  rouse  our  admiration  by  their  mechani- 
cal ingenuity  yet  their  political  and  social  life  is  of  the 
crudest  order.  Architecturally  the  Maya  of  Yucatan  tower 
above  the  Negroes  of  Africa,  but  their  lack  of  metallurgical 
knowledge  puts  them  on  a  lower  plane  from  another  point 
of  view.  Accordingly  it  is  conceivable  that  a  very  lowly 
people  might  distance  its  compeers  with  respect  to  social 
organization  and  rapidly  climb  the  giddy  heights  repre- 
sented by  the  family  in  Morgan's  scheme.  Hence,  it  has 
been  asserted,  material  advancement  is  no  criterion  of  social 
progress,  and  w^e  are  not  warranted  in  inferring  that  the 
rudest  tri1>es  in  their  general  culture  also  represent  the 
earliest  form  of  social  organization. 

But  this  is  pushing  a  legitimate  point  to  a  manifest  ab- 
surdity. Undoubtedly  one  phase  of  culture  does  not  abso- 
lutely determine  another,  and  we  may  expect  backwardness 
in  one  line  of  activity  to  be  sometimes  compensated  with 
progressiveness  in  another.  Yet  a  moment's  reflection  suf- 
fices to  show  that  the  correlation,  while  not  absolute,  is 
nevertheless  a  strong  one.  There  is  no  record  of  a  hunt- 
ing people  who  have  achieved  architectural  marvels  com- 
parable to  those  of  Peru  or  Yucatan ;  for  scientific  and 
artistic  progress  a  certain  stage  of  technological  knowledge, 
which  in  turn  implies  a  social  division  of  labor,  is  a  sine 
qua  non;  and  so  forth.  It  may  therefore  be  readily  granted 
that  occasionally  a  very  crude  culture  may  go  hand  in  hand 
with  an  abnormally  intricate  social  fabric.  But  that  all 
the  tribes  which  rank  as  the  lowest  in  the  scale  of  general 
civilization  should  in  the  one  phase  of  culture  represented 
by  family  life  have  risen  to  the  high-water  mark  of  attain- 
ment, while  tribes  of  a  far  more  advanced  status  should  uni- 
formly have  lagged  behind  in  this  one  particular. — that  is 
a  proposition  so  monstrous  that  to  conceive  it  clearly  is  to 


I50  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

repudiate  it  as  sheer  nonsense.  Hence  if  we  really  find 
the  family  present  and  the  sib  lacking  in  the  lowliest  cul- 
tures almost  without  exception,  we  shall  obey  the  dictates 
of  reason  in  concluding  that  the  family  is  an  earlier  and 
the  sib  a  later  development.  This  inference  is  of  such  fun- 
damental importance  that  its  empirical  basis  must  be  fully 
set  forth. 

The  first  who  threw  down  the  gauntlet  to  the  current 
dogma  by  a  trenchant  application  of  the  principle  of  cul- 
tural appraisal  was  Dr.  John  R.  Swanton.  He  confined  his 
discussion  to  North  American  data,  and  I  am  not  aware  of 
a  single  student  in  this  field  who  has  failed  to  accept  his 
position.  Swanton  showed  conclusively  that  virtually  all 
the  ruder  Indian  cultures  lacked  the  sib  scheme;  while  the 
sib  appeared  among  tribes  with  a  far  richer,  economic,  in- 
dustrial, ceremonial  and  political  equipment.  Thus,  the 
immense  sibless  region  of  northern  California,  Oregon, 
Washington,  Idaho,  Nevada,  Utah,  with  all  of  northwestern 
Canada  save  a  narrow  coastal  strip  and  its  immediate  hin- 
terland, represents  uniformly  the  lowest  grade  of  hviman 
existence  on  the  continent.  The  Paviotso  roaming  over  the 
Nevada  desert  in  search  of  edible  roots  cannot  be  compared 
for  a  moment  with  the  settled  Iroquois,  Hopi,  or  Tlingit  in 
point  of  general  cultural  condition. 

It  may  be  asked  why  the  complete  lack  of  sibs  throughout 
so  vast  an  area  remained  unnoticed  for  so  long  a  time  and 
is  still  unknown  to  Morgan's  disciples.  The  reason  is  an 
astonishingly  simple  one.  Morgan  was  a  New  Yorker  and 
accordingly  commenced  his  researches  among  the  Iroquois, 
thence  proceeding  westward  through  the  zone  in  which  the 
sib  organization  is  dominant.  In  his  time  the  Indians  of 
the  Far  West  were  almost  completely  unknown  for  ethno- 
graphic purposes,  hence  his  generalization  that  all  North 
American  tribes  had  sibs  was  pardonable.  Plad  he  begun 
work  in  Oregon  or  Idaho,  his  entire  scheme  would  pre- 
sumably have  been  different.     But  what  was  excusable  in 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SIB  151 

1877  is  no  longer  so  forty  years  later;  and  while  a  prema- 
ture conclusion  as  a  result  of  partial  ignorance  is  but  a 
venial  blot  on  the  master's  escutcheon,  its  tenacious  cham- 
pionship today  must  blight  the  scientific  reputation  of  the 
epigonoi. 

But  the  North  American  data  do  not  necessarily  agree 
with  the  phenomena  observed  elsewhere ;  we  must  conse- 
quently look  for  corroboratory  testimony  in  other  conti- 
nents. Turning  first  to  the  southern  half  of  the  New 
World,  we  find  that  the  lowest  culture,  that  of  the  Fuegians, 
is  again  characterized  by  the  lack  of  a  sib  organization.  In 
Asia  the  evidence  is  especially  suggestive.  Sibs  are  typical 
of  the  Turkic  peoples,  who  possess  a  highly  developed  sys- 
tem of  stock-raising  and  are  renowned  for  their  skill  as 
metallurgists ;  but  they  are  wanting  among  the  Chukchi 
and  Koryak,  whose  marginal  culture  has  only  recently  and 
partly  enilx)died  the  feature  of  reindeer-breeding  and  was 
formerly  on  the  level  of  the  seal-hunting  Eskimo.  The 
Khasi  of  Assam,  horticultural  and  tinctured  with  the  politi- 
cal notions  of  a  higher  civilization,  have  sibs ;  not  so  the 
crude  Sakai  and  Semang  hunters  of  the  Malay  Peninsula. 
Most  convincing  of  all,  the  Andaman  Islanders  of  Negrito 
stock,  isolated  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  untouched  by  the  waves 
of  enlightenment  that  carried  iron  and  horticulture  even 
to  the  remote  Philippines,  are  devoid  of  the  sib  insti- 
tution. 

Our  knowledge  of  African  sociology  is  still  sadly  de- 
ficient, but  there  is  no  evidence,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  that 
contravenes  my  general  proposition.  Sibs  occur  in  Bantu 
and  Sudanese  tril^es,  often  in  conjunction  with  complex 
political  organizations;  and  they  are  reported  from  pastoral 
peoples  like  the  Masai,  who  probably  mingle  Hamitic  with 
other  strains  and  occupy  in  many  ways  a  relatively  high 
plane.  The  cruder  Hottentot,  non-horticultural  and  rep- 
resenting the  last  dwindling  ramification  of  Old  World 
nomadism,   apparently   lack   sibs.      At   least,    the    reported 


152  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

transmission  of  the  father's  name  to  the  daughter  and  the 
mother's  to  the  son  is  completely  at  variance  with  the  uni- 
lateral tracing  of  descent,  by  which  all  the  children  take 
the  name  of  one  of  the  parents.  Finally,  I  have  found  no 
mention  of  sibs  in  accounts  of  the  still  more  primitive  hunt- 
ers, the  Bushmen  and  Pygmies, 

There  remains  Australia.  In  the  island  continent  the 
sib  is  a  widely  diffused  institution  and  presumably  an  old 
one.  But  this  does  not  involve  the  admission  that  it  is 
older  than  the  family;  for  here,  as  elsewhere,  we  do  not 
find  the  sib  without  the  family  but  both  institutions  side 
by  side.  Hence  the  utmost  that  can  be  conceded  is  that  in 
Australia  the  problem  of  priority  remains  indeterminate. 
Even  were  it  otherwise,  the  Australian  data  would  prove 
nothing  for  the  sequence  of  stages  in  other  regions,  for  the 
Australian  culture  is  by  no  means  more  primitive  than  that 
of  the  Paviotso  or  Andaman  Islanders. 

In  short,  with  the  one  notable  exception  of  the  Austral- 
ians the  simplest  cultures  lack  the  sib  and  possess  the  family, 
and  even  in  Australia  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  sib  is 
more  ancient  than  its  invariable  concomitant. 

But  here  we  are  once  more  confronted  by  a  hostile  ob- 
jection. What  if  the  tribes  enumerated  as  sibless  are  really 
organized  into  sibs  that  have  merely  escaped  observation? 
To  the  field-worker  the  suggestion  savors  of  the  closet. 
There  is  nothing  especially  recondite  about  a  sib  organiza- 
tion; where  it  exists  it  penetrates  the  social  life  to  such 
an  extent  that  an  inquirer  is  bound  to  stumble  across  it  at 
every  corner.  An  intelligent  visitor  cannot  spend  many 
w-eeks  with  people  like  the  Crow  or  Hopi  and  fail  to  note 
the  presence  of  hereditary  and  unilateral  divisions.  When, 
therefore,  prolonged  inquiry  fails  to  elicit  a  trace  of  such 
institutions,  the  only  permissible  inference  is  that  they  are 
not  there.  This  conclusion  attains  practically  absolute  cer- 
tainty when  corroborated  by  a  number  of  independent  in- 
vestigators.    Thus,  the  Northern  Athabaskans  have  been 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SIB  153 

visited  by  Samuel  Hearne — an  incomparable  observer — and 
among  modern  students  by  Drs.  P.  E.  Goddard,  Frank  Rus- 
sell, J.  A.  Mason,  and  the  present  writer;  yet  not  one  of 
them  has  recorded  anything  resembling  a  sib. 

But  it  may  be  urged  that  failure  to  note  a  sib  system  is 
no  imputation  on  the  recorder's  intelligence,  that  the  system 
may  escape  detection  simply  because  it  is  no  longer  there, 
having  been  destroyed  by  the  impact  of  civilization.  This 
argument,  too,  smells  of  the  study-lamp.  It  assumes  gra- 
tuitously that  sibs  have  a  tendency  to  pass  out  of  existence 
readily  upon  contact  with  Caucasian  ideas.  But  this  does 
not  hold  true.  The  Hopi  came  into  contact  with  the  Span- 
iards in  1540  but  they  are  still  organized  into  mother-sibs ; 
so  the  old  social  system  of  the  Iroquois  has  weathered 
French,  English  and  American  influence  in  the  heart  of 
New  York  State;  so  the  handful  of  surviving  Mandan  of 
North  Dakota  preserve  a  knowledge  of  their  sibs  and  the 
old  matrilineal  tradition.  Californian  data  are  likewise  il- 
luminating. The  same  observers  have  found  sibs  in  one 
region  and  failed  to  find  them  in  others,  so  that  here  at 
least  personal  bias  is  barred.  Moreover,  it  is  not  at  all 
true  that  the  tribes  recorded  as  sibless  have  lost  all  cog- 
nizance of  ancient  custom.  The  Hupa  still  maintained  the 
curious  division  of  the  sexes  by  which  husbands  never  slept 
in  their  wives'  houses  in  the  winter ;  and  the  Maidu  of 
twenty  years  ago  still  had  a  great  deal  to  say  about  cere- 
monies and  their  secret  society.  On  the  assumption  that  all 
Californian  peoples  formerly  shared  a  sib  system,  the  pres- 
ent limitation  of  that  system  to  certain  regions  of  central 
and  southern  California  is  not  at  all  clear.  Why  such  nice 
adherence  to  geographical  continuity  when  modern  condi- 
tions are  supposed  to  usher  in  a  period  of  chaos?  On  the 
contrary  alternative,  however,  we  can  readily  conceive  the 
more  southern  Calif ornians  as  the  extreme  outposts  of  the 
highly  elaborate  social  structure  distinguishing  the  native 
tribes  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona;  or  we  can  assume  a 


154  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

local  development  of  sibs  in  California  that  has  spread  only 
to  a  moderate  extent. 

The  position  that  cases  of  lacking  sibs  are  not  due  to 
recent  disintegration  of  native  custom  can  be  rendered  im- 
pregnable with  the  aid  of  the  heavy  artillery  of  kinship 
nomenclatures.  As  an  empirical  result  there  has  been  de- 
termined a  correlation  between  the  sib  organization  and  the 
Dakota  type  of  kinship  terminology, — that  which  distin- 
guishes maternal  and  paternal  relatives  in  the  parents'  gen- 
eration but  merges  kindred  regardless  of  degree  of  relation- 
ship. It  has  been  pointed  out  that  in  different  regions  there 
is  a  tendency  for  the  Dakota  classification  to  become  even 
more  inclusive  so  that  relatives  are  grouped  regardless  of 
anything  but  generation.  This  fact  is  favorable  to  the 
theory  I  am  now  attacking.  Thus,  Dr.  Rivers  thinks  that 
in  Oceania  the  Polynesians  once  possessed  the  sib  organiza- 
tion and  the  Dakota  system  still  found  in  many  parts  of 
Melanesia,  and  that  these  features  gave  way  to  a  sibless  or- 
ganization with  a  Hawaiian  nomenclature.  Accordingly 
the  Hawaiian  terminology,  though  not  consistent  with  a  sib 
institution,  might  be  interpreted  on  the  hypothesis  that  a 
sib  organization  once  existed  in  the  tribe  under  consider- 
ation ;  and  naturally  this  view  will  suggest  itself  also  when 
a  sibless  tribe  is  found  with  a  Dakota  nomenclature.  It  is 
not  by  any  means  a  stringent  demonstration  of  the  former 
existence  of  sibs  since  there  are  alternative  explanations, — 
the  terminology  may  have  been  borrowed,  or  it  may  be  due 
to  other  social  causes  (p.  37).  Nevertheless  the  argument 
has  the  semblance  of  plausibility. 

But  what  recourse  is  left  to  the  disciple  of  Morgan  where 
the  terminology,  instead  of  merging  collateral  and  lineal 
kin,  carefully  discriminates  the  parent  from  the  parent's 
sibling?  Such  a  result  is  exactly  what  we  should  expect 
from  a  family  organization,  in  which  the  father  and  mother 
would  take  an  exceptional  position  sharply  differentiated 
from  that  of  more  remote  kin.     Plere  there  can  be  no  ques- 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SIB  155 

tion  of  recent  breakdown  of  ancient  custom  or  of  innova- 
tion due  to  white  influence.  For  it  is  one  of  the  cardinal 
doctrines  of  Morgan's  philosophy  that  kinship  terms  are 
more  stable  than  the  social  fabric  in  which  they  originated 
and  may  persist  for  ages  after  it  is  rent  asunder.  Hence 
if  the  kinship  terminology  linked  with  a  sibless  organization 
yields  no  evidence  of  former  sibs,  then  there  is  not  the 
slightest  reason  for  assuming  that  the  tribe  was  ever  organ- 
ized into  sibs  since  ex  hypothesi  the  terminology  would  van- 
ish later  than  the  correlated  social  structure. 

I  am  not  urging  this  point  in  order  to  gain  a  dialectic 
victory.  For  in  this  matter  I  am  of  opinion  that  Morgan 
was  on  the  right  track.  Kinship  terms  represent  a  linguistic 
phenomenon,  and  language  is  notoriously  conservative.  We 
speak  of  the  setting  of  the  sun,  though  we  no  longer  believe 
that  he  moves  round  the  earth.  The  impact  of  new  condi- 
tions may  vitally  transform  and  even  shatter  aboriginal 
society  without  ruffling  the  traditional  mode  of  addressing 
relatives.  A  colonial  administrator  or  Indian  agent  will 
abrogate  human  sacrifices  and  impose  improved  methods 
of  tillage,  but  he  is  not  interested  whether  his  wards  have 
one  word  or  a  dozen  for  the  father  and  the  paternal  uncle. 
Accordingly,  the  distinction  of  lineal  and  collateral  kin 
would  fortify  the  evidence  of  observers  as  to  the  absence 
of  a  sib  institution. 

Turning  now  to  the  concrete  data,  we  find  repeated  reali- 
zation of  the  condition  suggested  above  as  merely  hypotheti- 
cal. In  California,  among  various  Salish  and  Shoshonean 
peoples,  and  in  Eskimo  territory,  we  encounter  relationship 
systems  differentiating  the  lineal  and  collateral  kin.  Out- 
side of  America  there  are  the  Andaman  Islanders,  the 
Chukchi  and  Koryak.  In  all  these  instances,  then,  which 
could  doubtless  be  multiplied  were  relevant  data  on  sibless 
tribes  more  abundant,  the  recorded  absence  of  the  sib  re- 
ceives the  stamp  of  finality.  The  dogma  of  the  universality 
of  the  sib  in  primitive  communities  thus  lies  shattered. 


156  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

There  is  still  another  line  of  argumentation  that  may  be 
advanced  on  l>ehalf  of  the  view  that  is  here  set  forth.  In 
consonance  with  the  important  role  which  names  assume  in 
savage  thought  the  inclusiveness  of  primitive  kinship  terms 
is  usually  far  more  than  a  mere  matter  of  terminology :  like 
designations  involve  like  social  relations.  It  is  a  miscon- 
struction of  this  fact  that  has  often  favored  the  mistaken 
notion  that  the  individual  family  and  individual  relationship 
were  non-existent  where  there  were  a  dozen  'fathers'  and 
'mothers,'  scores  of  siblings,  and  so  forth.  The  error  lay 
in  assuming  that  in  this  connection  likeness  meant  identity. 
But  we  have  already  found  that  in  various  contingencies  it 
is  the  closest  relative  of  the  appropriate  class  that  takes 
precedence.  By  the  provisions  of  the  levirate  an  own 
brother  inherits  the  deceased  man's  widow,  other  kinsmen 
being  merely  substitutes.  Cross-cousin  marriage  in  the 
best-recorded  cases  means  marriage  primarily  with  the  real 
mother's  own  brother's  daughter  or  with  the  father's  own 
sister's  daughter.  Among  the  Crow  Indians  all  men  called 
brother-in-law  are  entitled  to  a  peculiar  form  of  respect ; 
but  in  this  regard  the  real  brother-in-law  enjoys  an  unchal- 
lenged preeminence.  Considering  the  wide  dissemination 
of  the  sib  concept  in  Australia,  it  is  especially  gratifying  to 
find  these  results  so  emphatically  corroborated  by  the  most 
competent  of  Australian  investigators.  Mr.  Brown,  too, 
finds  that  while  social  functions  are  the  same  in  kind,  as 
he  happily  puts  it,  they  are  not  the  same  in  degree ;  and  the 
difference  in  degree  varies  with  the  degree  of  propinquity. 
In  short,  it  is  the  relations  of  the  narrow  family  circle  that 
are  primary,  and  there  has  simply  been  a  secondary  exten- 
sion in  attenuated  form  to  wider  and  wider  circles  of  real 
and  putative  kin.  The  Australian  phenomena,  whose  import 
has  hitherto  l^een  left  indeterminate,  thus  fall  in  line  with 
the  data  from  other  regions.  In  Australia,  as  elsewhere, 
the  family  is  basic  and  primary,  the  sib  relatively  unessen- 
tial and  a  secondary  development.     The  reversal  of  the 


HISTORY    OF   THE   SIB  157 

traditional   sequence   is   one   of   the  safest   conclusions   of 
modern  ethnology/ 

Origin  of  the  Sib 

How,  then,  did  the  sib  originate  on  the  basis  of  the 
earlier  family  concept?  In  setting  out  to  answer  this  query 
we  must  recollect  what  the  sib  really  is.  The  sib  is  a  group 
of  selected  kin,  and  the  problem  is  whence  comes  the  prin- 
ciple of  selection.  Why  are  certain  relatives  put  together 
to  form  a  social  unit  to  the  exclusion  of  other  kin?  In  at- 
tempting a  solution  we  must  scrutinize  the  social  conditions 
found  among  sibless  tribes  in  the  hope  of  detecting  factors 
favorable  to  the  development  of  the  unilateral  principle; 
and  we  must  also  examine  the  correlates  of  sib  organiza- 
tions in  search  of  agencies  that  may  have  produced  them 
and  tend  to  maintain  them  in  operation.  In  my  opinion 
the  transmission  of  property  rights  and  the  mode  of  resi- 
dence after  marriage  have  been  the  most  effective  means 
of  establishing  the  principle  of  unilateral  descent,  and  I 
will  endeavor  to  show  how  they  might  originate  both  a 
patrilineal  and  a  matrilineal  community. 

Let  us  recall  once  more  the  data  from  the  Hupa  (p.  70). 
With  them  residence  is  patrilocal  but  not  quite  definitely  so. 
That  is  to  say,  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  paternal  grand- 
father, father,  son  and  son's  son  of  a  man  are  natives  and 
occupants  of  the  same  village,  taking  their  wives  from 
without.  In  other  words,  the  Hupa  system  actually  unites 
by  residence  those  male  relatives  who  are  united  in  a  father- 
sib.  We  have  here  the  germ  out  of  which  a  father-sib 
might  readily  develop.  Only  two  modifications  are  re- 
quisite. The  patrilocal  rule  must  be  made  stringent,  so  that 
every  family  shall  follow  the  same  principle  of  segregation; 
and  secondly,  there  must  be  a  means  of  fixing  the  affiliation 
of  the  female  no  less  than  of  the  male  members  of  a  family. 
The  latter  end  is  most  readily  effected  by  the  use  of  a 


158  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

name  for  the  segregated  males ;  that  name  would  naturally 
come  to  be  given  at  birth  to  all  children  born  in  the  village, 
whether  they  are  male  or  female;  and  thus  girls  as  well  as 
boys  would  bear  and  retain  a  patronymic  designation. 
Then  it  no  longer  matters  whether  a  woman  departs  from 
her  native  locality ;  the  name  alone  suffices  to  fix  her  affilia- 
tion. Similarly,  when  the  principle  of  patrilineal  reckon- 
ing is  once  established  in  this  fashion,  the  residence  rules 
may  decay  without  affecting  the  system  since  a  man's  mem- 
bership is  fixed  once  and  forever  by  the  group  appel- 
lation. 

A  corresponding  influence  of  a  common  residence  is 
clearly  brought  out  in  the  case  of  a  South  American  people. 
In  the  Northwest  Amazons  the  social  unit  is  the  house  com- 
munity of  possibly  two  hundred  individuals.  Since  mar- 
riage is  always  patrilocal,  the  normal  Hupa  grouping  of 
male  kinsfolk  takes  place  without  exception,  and  the  evolu- 
tion of  a  typical  sib  would  merely  require  the  permanent 
identification  of  the  female  children  with  the  house  group 
into  which  they  are  born.  One  additional  detail  is  espe- 
cially illuminating.  Physical  propinquity,  here  as  else- 
where, has  engendered  a  sense  of  particularly  close  rela- 
tionship. The  children  of  brothers,  being  inevitably  reared 
in  one  house,  are  regarded  as  too  closely  related  for  mar- 
riage, while  no  such  restriction  applies  to  the  children  of 
sisters.  The  house  community  functions  as  an  exogamous 
unit  permitting  and  preventing  precisely  those  parallel 
cousin  unions  that  would  be  permitted  and  prevented  by  an 
exogamous  patrilineal  sib. 

Professor  Speck's  intensive  researches  among  the  north- 
eastern Algonkian  peoples  demonstrate  the  joint  action  of 
contiguous  residence  and  common  proprietary  rights. 
Hunting-territories  are  here  definitely  transmitted  from 
father  to  son;  the  wife  is  taken  to  her  husband's  abode; 
and  brothers  in  some  measure  share  economic  privileges. 
It  is  obvious  that  such  conditions  again  effect  an  alignment 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SIB  159 

of  kindred  which  approximates  that  of  the  characteristic 
father-sib. 

The  explanation  offered  for  the  segregation  of  patrilineal 
kin  may  in  corresponding  fashion  be  applied  to  the  assem- 
blage of  matrilineal  kin.  In  this  connection  Tylor  has 
already  urged  the  importance  of  matrilocal  residence.  Ob- 
viously, whenever  the  bridegroom  comes  to  reside  per- 
manently in  the  house  of  his  parents-in-law,  the  children 
will  as  a  matter  of  course  be  associated  with  his  wife's 
rather  than  with  his  people.  It  has  been  shown  that  this 
is  the  natural  correlate  of  anomalous  matrilocal  unions 
even  among  a  predominantly  patrilocal  tribe  like  the  Hupa. 
But  the  influence  of  matrilocal  residence  appears  most 
clearly  in  such  cases  as  those  of  the  Hopi  and  Zuni,  where 
there  is  not  merely  matrilocal  residence  but  hereditary 
transmission  of  the  house  from  mother  to  daughter. 
Grandmother,  mother,  and  daughters  are  thus  united  into 
the  core  of  a  social  unit,  and  all  children  born  in  the  house 
are  naturally  linked  with  this  permanent  group. 

But  although  matrilocal  residence  in  this  form  adequately 
accounts  for  the  evolution  of  a  matrilineal  kinship  group, 
there  are  two  serious  obstacles  to  this  interpretation  as  a 
general  theory.  For  one  thing,  not  a  few  matrilineal  peo- 
ples are  patrilocal.  This  is  true  of  the  Australians  and 
Melanesians,  and  also  of  some  African  and  American 
tribes.  Of  course,  it  is  possible  to  prop  up  the  hypothesis 
with  the  auxiliary  assumption  that  all  matrilineal  peoples 
were  formerly  matrilocal  but  that  would  be  idle  conjecture. 
Secondly,  matrilocal  residence  is  often  not  a  permanent 
condition.  If  at  the  expiration  of  a  year  or  so  the  young 
couple  set  up  house  for  themselves,  what  motive  is  there 
for  affiliating  the  issue,  or  at  least  the  issue  after  the  first 
child,  with  the  mother's  kin  rather  than  with  the  father's? 

It  is  therefore  desirable  to  supplement  the  factor  of  matri- 
local residence  and  female  house  ownership  with  some  ad- 
ditional  factor  that  might  effect  a  similar  alignment  of 


i6o  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

relatives.  Here  it  seems  useful  to  consider  what  we  know 
concerning  the  sexual  division  of  labor.  Hahn  has  famil- 
iarized us  with  the  notion  that  tillage  at  primitive  levels  is 
frequently  a  feminine  occupation.  This  fact  seems  to  me 
to  have  rather  significant  implications.  The  girls  growing 
up  to  maturity  will  learn  from  their  mother  how  to  culti- 
vate the  soil  as  they  learn  any  other  technique  characteristic 
of  their  sex.  But  in  some  cases  their  exclusive  occupation 
with  horticulture  may  establish  a  proprietary  title  to  de- 
scend from  mothers  to  daughters,  and  in  this  way  a  matri- 
lineal  set  of  female  kin  is  defined.  That  is  the  condition 
which  formerly  prevailed  with  the  Hidatsa,  where  gardens 
were  jointly  tilled  by  a  woman,  her  daughters  and  grand- 
daughters, "and  where  the  title  descended  correspondingly. 
The  female  descendants  of  sisters  were  thus  actually  united 
by  common  property  rights  and  association  in  economic 
activities.  Had  there  been  a  corresponding  segregation  of 
patrilineal  kin,  say  through  descent  of  hunting-territories, 
as  among  Dr.  Speck's  Algonkian  tribes,  it  is  possible  that 
the  patrilineal  principle  would  have  survived  or  that  the 
clash  of  systems  would  have  prevented  any  definite  rule  of 
descent  from  originating.  But  among  the  Hidatsa  there 
were  no  individual  hunting  prerogatives  to  be  inherited  by 
sons  and  the  residence  rules  were  neither  strictly  patrilocal 
nor  matrilocal.  Hence  there  was  no  patrilineal  principle 
to  counterbalance  the  active  matrilineal  one.  Since,  then, 
the  garden-owners  formed  the  most  definite  group,  it  was 
natural  for  any  child  to  have  its  affiliations  indicated  from 
birth  by  reference  to  the  garden  group.  In  short,  there 
thus  developed  matrilineal  descent  and  the  mother-sib. 

It  may  l)e  asked  how  successive  generations  of  women 
could  be  united  in  a  patrilocal  group.  The  answer  lies  in 
the  fact  that  patrilocal  and  matrilocal  residence  frequently 
do  not  imply  a  change  of  either  spouse's  community  but 
only  oi  his  or  her  dwelling  within  that  community.  The 
Pawnee  villages  were  definitely  endogamous,  the  Kai  al- 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SIB  i6i 

lowed  a  girl  to  go  to  her  husband's  house  but  hardly  ever 
to  another  settlement,  and  in  many  other  instances  the 
majority  of  marriages  were  between  members  of  the  same 
local  group.  Hence,  though  the  domiciliary  arrangements 
in  such  cases  must  react  on  the  family  life,  as  pointed  out 
in  a  previous  chapter,  they  would  not  affect  the  segregation 
of  matrilineal  or  patrilineal  kindred  in  the  manner  sug- 
gested, A  Kai  woman,  though  living  in  a  different  house 
from  her  daughters  and  granddaughters,  has  no  difficulty 
in  associating  with  them  in  her  daily  employments  since 
they  are  all  residents  of  one  village. 

The  succession  of  events  outlined  for  the  Hidatsa  must 
not  of  course  be  taken  to  represent  a  verified  historical  fact 
but  only  an  interpretation,  which,  how'ever,  seems  to  me  to 
enjoy  a  high  degree  of  probability  and  to  merit  examina- 
tion wherever  there  are  matrilineal  tribes  in  which  women 
perform  the  work  of  husbandry.  Even  in  other  cases  simi- 
lar considerations  apply.  The  Australians  are  patrilocal 
and  at  least  often  in  the  sense  that  a  wife  removes  to  her 
husband's  band.  While  her  husband  roams  over  the  band 
territory  to  hunt,  she  gathers  vegetable  food  within  the 
same  district.  Now  in  a  part  of  Queensland  she  is  recog- 
nized as  individual  proprietor  of  certain  patches  of  plants 
and  transmits  her  prerogative  to  her  daughters.  If,  as 
sometimes  happens  in  Australia,  the  men  had  only  com- 
munal rights  over  the  territory  while  the  women  established 
individual  ownership  over  definite  sections,  we  should  have 
a  condition  favoring  matrilineal  descent  among  a  patrilocal 
people. 

From  the  point  of  view  here  assumed  it  is  intelligible 
why  a  considerable  number  of  tril^es  should  lack  a  sib  sys- 
tem since  unilateral  reckoning  of  kinship  is  found  to  de- 
pend on  certain  special  usages,  such  as  a  definite  rule  of 
residence,  which  are  common  but  not  universal ;  and  fur- 
ther because  there  may  be  a  conflict  of  mutually  exclusive 
unilateral  principles,  yielding  the  palm  to  neither.     On  the 


i62  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

other  hand,  the  frequency  of  the  sib  institution  seems 
roughly  to  correspond  tO'  the  wide  distribution  of  the  causes 
here  reckoned  with.  Finally,  the  multiple  origin  of  the 
sib,  which  was  previously  suggested  on  other  grounds,  is 
rendered  still  more  likely  if  underlying  the  sib  are  phenom- 
ena such  as  the  residence  rule  or  inheritance  law.  For  in 
these  rules  lay  the  possibility  for  an  indefinite  number  of 
independent  developments  of  patrilineal  and  matrilineal 
descent.^ 

The  Sib  and  the  Dakota  Terminology 

As  noted  previously,  the  empirical  correlation  between 
an  exogamous  sib  system  and  the  Dakota  terminology  is 
sometimes  interpreted  in  causal  terms :  the  sib  is  repre- 
sented as  producing  the  characteristic  grouping  of  kin. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  when  a  sib  organization  is 
once  firmly  established  it  will  react  upon  the  method  of 
designating  relatives :  all  persons  of  one's  generation  and 
sib  will  be  reckoned  siblings,  all  males  in  the  father's  sib 
are  addressed  as  father,  and  so  forth.  But  what  is  true 
of  the  sib  scheme  in  full  swing  cannot  possibly  be  true  of 
the  nascent  sib.  For  that  is  simply  a  peculiar  alignment  of 
kindred;  and  if  it  coincides  with  the  Dakota  system  of  align- 
ment, the  relation  between  the  two  is  one  of  identity,  not 
of  cause  and  effect.  Consequently,  if  we  desire  to  under- 
stand that  alignment  we  must  not  rest  content  with  uttering 
the  word  *sib'  as  though  it  were  some  peculiarly  illumi- 
nating abracadabra,  but  must  penetrate  beyond  the  concept 
it  represents.  In  the  preceding  section  I  have  shown  how 
under  some  conditions  a  father  and  his  brothers  with  all 
their  sons  and  sons'  sons  may  be  segregated  into  a  definite 
social  group;  and  how  under  other  conditions  there  may 
arise  a  corresponding  assemblage  of  a  mother  and  her  sis- 
ters with  all  their  daughters  and  daughters'  daughters.  But 
for  all  I  have  said  a  father  and  his  brothers,  while  members 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SIB  163 

of  the  same  social  group,  might  be  discriminated  in  desig- 
nation,— a  very  rare  occurrence  among  tribes  divided  into 
sibs.  Hence  it  is  desirable  to  show  how  this  and  corre- 
sponding classifications  of  kin  came  into  being. 

First  of  all,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  point  out  that  a 
separation  of  paternal  and  maternal  kin  is  just  as  natural 
for  a  family  as  for  a  sib  system.  The  mother's  brother, 
e.g.,  is  as  decidedly  the  representative  of  a  different  social 
group  from  the  paternal  uncle's  in  one  case  as  in  the  other. 
We  find  accordingly  that  this  distinction  is  clearly  drawn 
by  a  number  of  sibless  tribes.  Where  their  nomenclature 
often  differs  from  the  Dakota  pattern  is  in  maintaining  the 
distinction  between  father  and  paternal  uncle,  mother  and 
maternal  aunt.  If  we  can  show  how  this  distinction  may 
vanish,  we  show  how  the  sib-mates  not  merely  become 
united  into  a  group  but  how  they  come  to  assume  the 
mutual  relations  so  characteristic  of  a  sib  organization. 

I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  levirate  and  the  sororate  are 
older  institutions  than  the  sib  and  that  by  their  joint  action 
they  can  produce  and  often  have  produced  that  very  classi- 
fication of  relatives  characteristic  of  the  sib  and  following 
the  Dakota  pattern.  That  they  veritably  can  effect  this 
result,  has  already  been  explained ;  but  the  chronological 
sequence  I  am  postulating  demands  proof.  For  it  would 
be  possible  to  suppose  that  levirate  and  sororate  are  the 
consequence  rather  than  the  cause  of  the  sib;  that  funda- 
mentally any  fellow-member  took  the  place  of  a  deceased 
spouse,  the  brother  and  sister  functioning  not  by  virtue  of 
their  family  relationship  but  only  as  sib-mates.  But  in 
the  first  place  this  assumption  is  refuted  by  the  known  facts 
concerning  the  levirate  and  sororate.  These  rules,  as  in- 
dicated above,  apply  primarily  to  the  real  brother  or  sister. 
Their  precedence  is  unchallenged  among  sib-members,  who 
are  only  substitutes  for  own  siblings.  Secondly,  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  levirate  and  sororate  is  far  wider  than  the 
distribution  of  the  sib,  and  what  is  more  they  occur  among 


i64  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

not  a  few  of  the  sibless  tril3€s  of  ruder  culture.  This  fact 
not  only  suggests  their  relative  priority  but  also  explains 
why  some  sibless  tribes  share  the  Dakota  terminology  of 
the  tribes  with  sibs.  If  that  nomenclature,  though  con- 
sonant with  the  sib  institution,  is  not  its  product  but  the 
result  of  older  marriage  customs,  then  where  these  customs 
exist  the  terminology  may  also  arise,  whether  the  sib  co- 
exists or  not. 

My  theory  does  not  involve  the  dogma  that  all  Dakota 
terminologies  are  the  result  of  these  two  forms  of  mar- 
riage. In  special  cases  quite  different  principles  oi  inter- 
pretation are  admissible  and  indeed  necessary.  For  ex- 
ample, the  Hopi  practise  neither  the  sororate  nor  the  levi- 
rate,  yet  they  have  both  the  sib  institution  and  an  interesting 
variant  of  the  Dakota  kinship  nomenclature,  characterized 
by  the  frequent  overriding  of  the  difference  of  generation. 
Thus,  a  father's  sister's  son  is  not  distinguished  from  the 
father,  and  the  father's  sister's  daughter  and  her  daughter's 
daughter  are  classed  with  the  father's  sister.  But  these 
deviations  from  the  Dakota  norm  and  the  norm  itself  are 
deducible  from  those  antecedent  conditions  of  Hopi  life 
that  gave  rise  to  the  sib.  Matrilocal  residence  and  the  fe- 
male tenure  of  dwellings  amply  account  for  the  phenomena. 
The  father's  sister's  son  comes  from  the  same  house  as  the 
father;  the  father's  brothers  are  one  and  all  original  in- 
mates of  the  same  household.  Similarly,  all  sisters  are 
house-mates ;  and  so  are  the  father's  sister,  her  daughters, 
and  their  female  descendants  through  females.  The  ter- 
minological equations  of  the  Hopi  are  thus  based  on  com- 
mon tenancy  and  are  intelligible  without  the  levirate  and 
sororate.  The  principal  point  is  that  in  every  case  we  must 
look  for  some  correlated  usage,  whether  it  be  a  rule  of 
marriage  or  of  residence,  that  may  have  consummated  the 
observed  nomenclature  so  far  as  it  is  at  all  dependent  on 
social  custom. 

There    is   an   important   point   that   becomes    intelligible 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SIB  165 

in  the  light  of  the  principles  expounded  above.  It  can  be 
readily  understood  why  marriage  between  parallel  cousins 
should  frequently  be  tabooed.  Given  the  classification  of 
fathers'  brothers  with  fathers  and  of  mothers'  sisters  with 
mothers,  parallel  cousins  logically  call  one  another  siblings 
and  with  primitive  exaggeration  of  the  meaning  of  names 
they  generally  eschew  intermarriage.  But  except  in  a 
dual  division  of  society  only  half  of  the  parallel  cousins 
are  prevented  from  marrying  by  the  rule  of  the  sib.  As 
Morgan  clearly  showed,  in  a  matrilineal  society  only  the 
children  of  sisters  belong  necessarily  to  the  same  unit,  yet 
all  parallel  cousins  are  called  siblings.  This  indicates  that 
after  the  levirate  and  sororate  or  other  conditions  had 
brought  about  the  kinship  nomenclature  found  with  sib  or- 
ganizations there  must  have  been  a  sifting  of  parallel  cous- 
ins by  which  only  half  of  them  were  segregated  to  form 
part  of  the  sib.  But  this  process  has  already  been  explained 
in  the  discussion  of  the  origin  of  the  sib.  The  Amazons 
case  is  typical :  by  patrilocal  residence  there  is  a  dichotomy 
of  parallel  cousins,  the  children  of  brothers  are  united  in 
one  house,  those  of  sisters  are  not.  Here  we  even  find  the 
marriage  rules  profoundly  affected  by  the  fact  of  physical 
contiguity;  brothers'  children  may  not  marry,  while  those 
of  sisters  may.  However,  whether  this  effect  be  produced 
or  not,  the  separation  of  parallel  cousins  into  two  groups 
of  sib-mates  and  members  of  different  sibs,  respectively,  is 
abundantly  accounted  for  by  the  Hupa,  Northeast  Algon- 
kian,  and  Pueblo  phenomena. 

To  sum  up.  The  sib  grows  out  of  the  older  family  by  a 
number  of  processes  that  naturally  lead  to  the  characteristic 
classification  and  unilateral  segregation  of  kin.  The  as- 
sociated Dakota  nomenclature  is  probably  in  large  measure 
due  to  the  prior  action  of  the  levirate  and  sororate.  But 
this  would  not  suffice  to  produce  the  differentiation  of  par- 
allel cousins  that  accompanies  a  multiple  sib  organization. 
This  does,  however,  naturally  result  from  those  facts  of 


i66  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

residence  and  transmission  of  property  rights  which  estab- 
lish unilateral  lines  of  kin.^ 

MOTHER-SlBS    AND    FaTHER-SiBS 

There  is  still  another  historical  problem  of  the  utmost 
theoretical  importance  to  be  considered.  What  is  the  chro- 
nological relationship  between  matrilineal  and  patrilineal 
descent?  A  number  of  abstract  possibilities  suggest  them- 
selves. Mother-sibs  may  have  grown  out  of  father-sibs  or 
vice  versa ;  either  type  of  sib  may  be  of  later  origin  than 
the  other  without  developing  from  the  earlier  form ;  or 
there  may  be  no  regular  sequence  whatsoever. 

This  last  possibility  is  one  naturally  repugnant  to  those 
who  seek  the  establishment  of  sociological  laws ;  and  ac- 
cordingly Morgan  and  his  followers  postulate  an  invariable 
order  of  development.  According  to  them,  the  archaic  sib 
was  necessarily  always  matrilineal  because  marriage  l3e- 
tween  single  pairs  was  unknown  in  ancient  times,  rendering 
paternity  doubtful.  Affiliation  was  thus  with  the  mother's 
group  and  such  property  as  existed  was  transmitted  within 
the  maternal  sib,  from  brother  to  brother  or  from  maternal 
uncle  to  sister's  son,  but  never  from  father  to  son.  But 
with  the  increase  of  property  a  natural  antagonism  arose 
against  this  form  of  inheritance  that  excluded  the  owner's 
children  from  the  legacy,  and  this  motive  together  with  the 
increasing  certainty  of  fatherhood  sufficed  to  overthrow 
matrilineal  descent  and  to  establish  the  father-sib.  It  is 
an  essential  part  of  this  theory  not  merely  to  assume  that 
matrilineal  passes  into  patrilineal  descent  but  that  all  father- 
sibs  without  exception  have  grown  out  of  mother-sibs.  For 
example,  the  historic  genos  of  the  Greeks  and  the  gens  of 
the  Romans  were  patrilineal ;  but  applying  the  principle  of 
uniform  chronological  succession,  Morgan  infers  that  these 
institutions  were  anciently  mother-sibs. 

Everyone  of  the  basic  points  in  this  line  of  argumentation 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SIB  167 

may  be  dismissed  as  contrary  to  ethnological  evidence.  In 
the  first  place,  marriage  between  single  pairs  is  not  absent 
but  common  among  the  simplest  tribes  and  no  ground  what- 
soever exists  for  assuming  a  condition  of  ancient  promis- 
cuity. Indeed,  on  the  very  lowest  cultural  plane  we 
frequently  encounter  matrimonial  relations  that  would  be 
rated  exemplary  by  a  mid-Victorian  moralist.  Among  the 
Andaman  Islanders  "conjugal  fidelity  till  death  is  not  the 
exception,  but  the  rule"  and  corresponding  reports  are  ex- 
tant for  other  extremely  rude  tribes.  But  even  were  pa- 
ternity doubtful,  it  would  prove  nothing  as  to  the  necessity 
of  matrilineal  descent.  Biological  paternity  is  one  thing, 
sociological  fatherhood  another.  The  polyandrous  Toda 
do  not  trouble  themselves  about  the  former  but  establish 
the  latter  by  a  purely  conventional  rite  (p.  47).  Where 
adoption  plays  the  part  it  does  in  the  Andamans  and  Torres 
Straits  Islands,  biological  paternity  counts  for  little  and 
the  foster-father  fulfills  all  the  obligations  of  a  progenitor. 
The  connection  between  sexual  intercourse  and  conception 
is,  according  to  competent  authority,  unknown  to  various 
Australian  groups,  yet  at  least  some  of  these  are  patrilineal 
like  the  Toda  and  Torres  Straits  Islanders. 

Further,  some  correlation  assuredly  exists  betw^een  the 
rule  of  inheritance  and  the  rule  of  descent,  as  follows  from 
the  part  the  transmission  of  property  played  in  establishing 
a  unilateral  group  of  kin.  But  this  correlation  is  a  partial 
one.  On  the  whole  it  is  more  likely  that  matrilineal  not 
filial  inheritance  will  be  found  in  a  matrilineal  society,  and 
filial  succession  with  paternal  descent ;  but  the  exceptions 
are  too  numerous  to  be  ignored.  There  are  matronymic 
tribes  like  the  Crow^  and  Hidatsa,  where  some  kinds  of 
property  are  transmitted  matrilineally,  others  patrilineally ; 
there  are  patronymic  tribes  like  the  Warramunga  among 
whom  the  legacy  goes  to  the  maternal  uncles  and  daugh- 
ters' husbands  of  the  deceased,  i.e.,  to  his  mother's  moiety, 
not  his  own.     These  data  can  of  course  be  twisted  into 


i68  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

concordance  with  the  traditional  scheme  by  assuming  that 
in  the  former  case  there  is  a  nascent  father-sib,  in  the  latter 
a  survival  of  the  pristine  matrilineal  condition.  But  ugly 
facts  can  always  be  swept  aside  by  making  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  auxiliary  hypotheses.  The  alternative  explanation 
is  just  as  reasonable  that  the  paternal  traits  of  the  Crow 
persist  from  a  previous  patrilineal  stage  and  that  the  War- 
ramunga  are  in  a  nascent  stage  of  matrilineal  organi- 
zation. 

Finally,  what  evidence  is  there  that  the  development  of 
property  may  cause  not  merely  the  establishment  of  patri- 
lineal descent  substituted  for  a  sibless  organization,  as  I 
myself  have  contended,  but  the  change  from  matrilineal  to 
patrilineal  descent?  The  possibility  exists  no  doubt,  but  a 
number  of  historically  known  cases  show  that  there  is  no 
automatic  necessity.  For  example,  the  Navaho  of  northern 
Arizona  profited  by  the  introduction  of  sheep  into  the 
Southwest  some  time  in  the  seventeenth  century  sO'  as  to 
develop  into  a  prosperous  pastoral  people,  yet  in  spite  of 
their  thriving  flocks,  tended  by  the  men,  they  have  remained 
obstinately  matrilineal.  Similarly,  the  introduction  of  the 
horse  surely  revolutionized  the  property  concepts  of  the 
Hidatsa  and  Crow,  but  they  still  reckon  descent  through 
the  mother,  and  it  was  not  a  spontaneous  evolution  but 
Government  edicts  that  effected  patrilineal  transmission 
of  real  estate  when  I  first  visited  the  latter  tribe.  Indeed, 
the  possessions  of  some  primitive  tribes  are  so  meager  that 
Morgan  himself  shrank  from  attributing  all'  change  of 
descent  to  the  father's  solicitude  for  his  children's  patri- 
mony and  invoked  the  power  of  recent  Caucasian  influences. 
However,  this  suggestion  seems  little  short  of  absurd  when 
we  recall  that  peoples  like  the  Hopi  and  Iroquois,  who  have 
Ijcen  sul)jected  to  Caucasian  contact  for  centuries,  are 
among  the  most  typical  of  matronymic  tribes  in  existence, 
while  the  Blackfoot,  whose  relations  have  been  both  less 
intensive  and  more  recent,  are  predominantly  patrilineal. 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SIB  169 

In  short,  Morg-an's  theory  is  untenable  from  various 
points  of  view.  For  its  demohtion  it  suffices  to  show  that, 
as  among  the  Crow  and  Hidatsa,  it  is  quite  feasible  to 
transmit  certain  kinds  of  property  from  father  to  son  with- 
out any  change  of  descent. 

Nevertheless  to  refute  Morgan's  scheme  is  not  yet  to 
refute  the  sequence  it  is  meant  to  establish.  His  conclu- 
sions might  be  right  for  all  the  weakness  of  his  evidence ; 
and  other  arguments  must  be  subjected  to  examination. 

In  an  article  that  remains  one  of  the  classics  of  anthropo- 
logical literature  Tylor,  among  other  things,  essayed  to 
show  that  patrilineal  tribes  had  passed  through  a  matri- 
lineal  stage.  Advancing  what  he  himself  designated  as  a 
geological  argument,  he  maintained  that  "the  institutions 
of  man  are  as  distinctly  stratified  as  the  earth  on  which  he 
lives.  They  succeed  each  other  in  series  substantially  uni- 
form over  the  globe,  independent  of  what  seem  the  com- 
paratively superficial  differences  of  race  and  language,  but 
shaped  by  similar  human  nature  acting  through  successively 
changed  conditions  in  savage,  barbaric,  and  civilized  life." 
This  principle  he  applies  to  the  case  under  discussion. 

Tylor  begins  by  postulating  three  layers  corresponding 
respectively  to  the  maternal,  the  maternal-paternal  and  the 
paternal  system.  In  the  first  "descent  ...  is  reckoned 
from  the  mother;  authority  is  mainly  on  her  side,  the 
mother's  brother  being  habitually  guardian  of  the  children; 
succession  to  rank  and  office,  and  inheritance  of  property, 
follow  the  same  line  passing  to  the  brother  or  to  the  sister's 
son."  In  the  paternal  stage  "descent  is  from  the  father; 
he  has  the  power  over  wife  and  children ;  succession  and 
inheritance  are  from  him  to  his  offspring."  Connecting 
these  two  there  is  a  "transitional  stage  in  which  their  char- 
acteristics are  variously  combined."  Tylor  cautiously 
admits  the  vagueness  of  the  classification  and  at  the  same 
time  boldly  proceeds  to  build  upon  it  as  though  it  provided 
a   firm    foundation    for  historical    inference.      Before   ex- 


lyo  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

pounding  his  argument  it  will  be  well  to  regard  this  point 
somewhat  more  closely. 

From  a  logical  point  of  view  Tylor's  classification  is  im- 
peccable. The  question  is  merely  whether  historical  veri- 
ties correspond  to  his  logical  categories,  and  this  can  only 
be  admitted  with  such  qualifications  as  to  render  the  whole 
scheme  of  little  value.  Tylor,  it  should  be  noted,  substitutes 
for  the  simple,  unmistakable,  discrete  difference  between 
matrilineal  and  patrilineal  descent  the  complex,  admittedly 
vague  and  fluctuating  difference  between  a  matrilineal  and 
a  patrilineal  complex.  He  assumes,  that  is  to  say,  that 
inevitably  or  at  least  usually  linked  with  the  rule  of  descent 
there  are  certain  correlated  customs,  all  of  which  jointly 
form  an  organic  whole ;  and  where  only  some  of  the  fea- 
tures occur,  he  postulates  an  intermediate  condition.  Now 
it  may  be  admitted  that  there  are  some  instances  of  peoples 
with  a  genuinely  paternal  system,  e.g.,  the  ancient  Romans 
and  the  Chinese.  But  by  far  the  majority  of  the  known 
peoples  of  the  world  are  clearly  in  what  Tylor  calls  the 
maternal-paternal  stage,  as  might  be  expected  from  the  co- 
existence of  the  bilateral  family  with  the  unilateral  sib 
unit.  The  Khasi  father  is  respected  even  during  his  tem- 
porary residence  in  his  wife's  household  and  later  gains  an 
undisputed  ascendancy ;  the  Tsimshian  father  is  found 
actively  promoting  his  son's  interests  regardless  of  matri- 
lineal descent;  the  Pueblo  father  is  recognized  as  the  pro- 
vider, and  it  is  his  kin  that  bestow  a  name  on  his  child, 
reflecting  their  and  not  the  child's  sib  affiliation.  Yet  these 
are  extreme  cases  of  'maternal'  status ;  a  fortiori  we  may 
infer  that  virtually  no  purely  maternal  tribes  exist. 

There  is  another  and  even  more  fundamental  question 
that  obtrudes  itself.  How  does  Tylor  derive  his  matrilineal 
complex?  Is  it  an  empirical  fact  that  the  phenomena  he 
cites  as  characteristic  of  maternal  societies  are  regularly 
united  or  is  this  merely  a  logical  deduction,  plausible  but 
not  based  on  the  concrete  data?     The  truth  is  that  both 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SIB  171 

motives  are  at  work.  There  are  some  tribes  in  which,  say, 
avuncular  authority  is  linked  with  matrilineal  descent,  and 
from  the  point  of  view  of  abstract  logic  this  seems  in  har- 
mony with  the  eternal  fitness  of  things.  -Accordingly  these 
particular  tribes  are  selected  as  maternal  tribes  par  excel- 
lence, as  norms  of  what  a  self-respecting  matrilineal  tribe 
should  be.  But,  as  I  have  shown  elsewhere,  this  is  an  inad- 
missible procedure.  When  matrilineal  descent  was  first 
discovered  by  Bachofen,  it  seemed  very  plausible  that  such 
a  usage  implied  the  former  sovereignty  of  the  female  sex, 
3^et  this  notion  is  now  gracing  the  refuse  heaps  of  anthrop- 
ological science.  Consequently  we  must  not  rely  too  much 
on  abstract  probability;  if  we  desire  to  determine  whether, 
or  to  what  extent,  the  avunculate  and  matrilineal  descent 
cohere,  we  must  take  either  custom  as  the  pivotal  one  and 
ascertain  to  what  extent  the  other  occurs  in  conjunction 
with  it.  But  such  an  investigation  is  fatal  to  the  assump- 
tion that  the  avunculate  is  a  safe  criterion  of  matrilineal 
descent :  first,  because  there  are  matrilineal  tribes  without 
the  custom ;  secondly,  because  there  are  patrilineal  tribes 
which  practise  it. 

It  has  been  customary  on  the  part  of  the  older  school  of 
anthropologists  to  treat  all  of  the  second  group  of  cases  as 
survivals  from  a  prior  matrilineal  condition ;  and  recently 
Dr.  Hartland  has  again  advocated  this  interpretation  with 
much  skill  and  learning.  Adherents  of  this  view  thus  con- 
vert what  at  first  seems  a  fatal  objection  into  an  argument 
favorable  to  their  theory.  Of  course,  they  will  say,  the 
Omaha  are  patrilineal  now ;  but  their  having  the  avunculate 
proves  that  they  once  traced  descent  through  the  mother, 
for  on  no  other  hypothesis  can  such  a  usage  be  explained. 
It  is  this  last  assumption  that  delivers  them  into  their  op- 
ponents' hands,  for  the  avunculate  can  be  readilv  conceived 
as  due  to  other  than  matrilineal  conditions.  First  of  all,  we 
have  to  reckon  with  the  possibility  of  diffusion.  Grant  that 
the  avunculate  arises  naturally  in  conjunction  with  a  matri- 


172  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

lineal  organization;  it  may  nevertheless  subsequently  be 
adopted  by  a  patrilineal  people,  and  in  that  case  its  occur- 
rence there  could  not  be  cited  as  proof  of  former  matri- 
lineal  descent  in  the  borrowing  tribe.  To  take  an  actual 
example :  the  neighboring  Pawnee  and  Omaha  share  avun- 
cular usages,  the  former  being  matrilineal,  the  latter  patri- 
lineal. We  may  assume  with  Tylor  and  his  followers  that 
the  customs  arose  with  the  Pawnee,  but  on  that  hypothesis 
their  presence  in  Omaha  society  is  proof  that  the  Omaha 
borrowed  a  Pawnee  institution,  not  that  they  themselves 
ever  passed  through  a  corresponding  matrilineal  stage.  As 
to  the  influence  of  borrowing  on  uniform  sequences  gen- 
erally, more  will  be  said  below. 

Secondly,  the  avunculate  is  sometimes  coupled  with  cross- 
cousin  marriage  of  the  more  common  variety.  In  that  case 
it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  the  relevant  customs  are 
directly  due  to  the  relationship  of  nephew  and  uncle :  they 
may  just  as  well  be  the  result  of  the  prospective  relationship 
by  marriage.  For  example,  among  the  patrilineal  Kariera 
a  young  man  owes  certain  duties  to  his  fiancee's  father  and 
in  lesser  degree  to  all  men  standing  in  the  same  relationship 
to  him,  to  wit,  that  of  mother's  brother.  Mr.  Brown's  lan- 
guage leaves  little  doubt  that  it  is  the  marriage  connection 
rather  than  the  blood  tie  that  determines  kinship  usages  in 
this  case,  and  this  may  well  hold  for  a  number  of  other  in- 
stances. The  avunculate  may  thus  turn  out  on  occasion  to 
have  no  direct  association  with  the  maternal  kin  at  all. 

This  brings  us  to  a  more  general  point.  In  discussing 
kinship  usages  we  found  that  primitive  tribes  assign  defi- 
nite functions  to  relatives,  both  maternal  and  paternal,  both 
by  blood  and  by  affinity.  From  a  wider  point  of  view  the 
avunculate  is  simply  a  specific  type  of  kinship  usage.  That 
the  mother's  brother  should  exercise  a  certain  amount  of 
authority  over  his  sister's  children  is  no-  more  remarkable 
than  that  the  father's  sister  should  be  able  to  veto  her 
pephew's  matrimonial  plans  or  that  the  father's  sib-mates 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SIB  173 

should  be  entitled  to  gifts  in  a  matrilineal  community.  If 
the  avunciilate  among  the  Omaha  is  a  survival  of  a  matri- 
lineal stage,  then  the  prominence  of  the  father's  kin  among 
the  Melanesians  and  the  Crow  may  be  urged  as  a  survival 
of  a  one-time  patrilineal  reckoning  of  descent  prior  to  the 
observed  matrilineal  condition.  This  is  of  course  a  purely 
dialectic  thrust.  In  truth  neither  argument  can  be  recog- 
nized as  cogent :  both  sets  of  usages  are  exactly  on  the  same 
plane,  exemplifying  the  range  of  kinship  rules  on  either 
side  of  the  family  and  bearing  no  necessary  relation  to 
descent. 

In  short,  it  is  not  permissible  to  treat  a  given  example  of 
avuncular  customs  in  a  patrilineal  society  as  evidence  Oif 
an  antecedent  matrilineal  stage  because  their  existence  may 
have  a  quite  different  origin.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a 
fact  that  the  avunculate  is  fairly  often  lacking  in  matri- 
lineal tribes.  The  Australians  with  maternal  descent  do 
not  practise  it  in  a  typical  form,  and  in  such  distinctively 
matrilineal  tribes  as  the  Crow  and  Hidatsa  there  is  no  trace 
of  it.  It  may  ultimately  turn  out  that  additional  condi- 
tions besides  maternal  descent  are  required  for  the  origin 
of  the  avunculate ;  its  highest  development  seems  often  to 
be  coupled  with  a  sedentary  existence  and  with  definite 
matrilocal  residence,  and  possibly  this  latter  feature  or  all 
these  favoring  conditions  jointly  are  required  to  produce  it. 
At  all  events,  Tylor's  assumption  that  avuncular  authority 
is  a  mark  of  matrilineal  society  rests  on  an  unwarrantable 
selection  of  data.  Not  that  we  need  deny  all  correlation 
whatsoever,  but  it  is  clearly  of  a  more  involved  kind.  Per- 
haps the  safest  way  to  formulate  the  facts  would  be  to  say 
that  certain  conditions  favoring  the  origin  of  maternal 
descent  are  also  favorable  to  avuncular  prominence,  but 
that  the  result  is  not  inevitable  and  may  also  come  about 
through  other  channels. 

Now  what  holds  for  the  avunculate  as  an  ingredient  of 
the  mattrilineal  complex  applies  likewise  to  inheritance;  fulesi, 


174  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

though  possibly  in  lesser  degree.  They,  too,  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  absolutely  correlated  with  the  rule  of  descent 
when  we  find  on  the  one  hand  patrilineal  tribes  recognizing 
the  rights  of  the  sister's  son  and  on  the  other  side  matri- 
lineal  tribes  in  which,  as  at  Buin,  office  is  inherited  in  the 
male  line,  or  where  as  among  the  Crow  some  kinds  of 
property  are  transmitted  from  father  to  son.  In  short,  the 
classification  into  maternal,  maternal-paternal  and  paternal 
systems,  while  not  devoid  of  an  empirical  foundation,  rep- 
resents far  more  nearly  a  series  oi  abstract  logical  possi- 
bilities than  the  normal  actualities  of  primitive  society. 

But  let  us  return  to  Tylor's  geological  argument.  Apply- 
ing his  triple  stratification,  he  collates  with  these  layers  cer- 
tain primitive  usages  and  draws  from  their  presence  in 
some  and  absence  in  others  the  far-reaching  conclusion  of 
matrilineal  priority.  Two  examples  will  suffice  to  explain 
his  method.  Tylor  finds  that  the  levirate  occurs  in  all  three 
of  his  strata,  but  in  the  maternal-paternal  a  new  feature  is 
superadded,  viz.  the  son's  inheritance  of  widows  except  for 
his  own  mother.  That  is,  filial  widow-inheritance  as  an 
accompaniment  of  the  levirate  is  limited  to  the  mixed  and 
the  purely  paternal  stratum.  Hence,  argues  Tylor,  the 
maternal  must  have  preceded  both,  for  otherwise  there 
would  l)e  found  vestiges  of  filial  succession  in  the  maternal 
layer.  Another  custom  to  which  the  same  argument  is 
applied  is  the  couvade, — the  strange  fashion  observed  in 
some  countries  of  confining  the  father  rather  than  the 
mother  on  the  birth  of  a  child  and  subjecting  him  to  a 
series  of  rigorous  taboos  in  order  to  safeguard  the  infant's 
welfare.  The  couvade,  also,  fails  to  appear  in  the  maternal 
layer;  it  is  most  strongly  developed  in  the  maternal- 
paternal,  and  dwindles  considerably  in  the  paternal.  From 
this  distrilnition  Tylor  draws  a  conclusion  identical  with 
that  based  on  the  previous  case.  Summing  up,  he  writes : 
"Just  as  the  forms  of  life,  and  even  the  actual  fossils  of 
the  Carboniferous  formation,  may  be  traced  on  into  the 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SIB  175 

Permian,  but  Permian  types  and  fossils  are  absent  from 
the  Carboniferous  strata  formed  before  they  came  into 
existence,  so  here  widow-inheritance  and  couvade,  which, 
if  the  maternal  system  had  been  later  than  the  paternal, 
would  have  lasted  on  into  it,  prove  by  their  absence,  the 
priority  of  the  maternal." 

It  is  hardly  unfair  to  object  that  for  an  adequate  proof 
of  Tylor's  proposition  a  somewhat  wider  basis  for  induc- 
tion would  have  been  desirable.  The  inheritance  of  widows 
and  the  couvade  are  only  two  of  an  indefinite  number  of 
usages  that  might  be  selected  to  test  the  theoretical  se- 
quence, and  what  warrant  is  there  that  other  features 
would  not  yield  contradictory  results?  But  this  considera- 
tion may  be  waived  in  favor  of  another.  What,  after  all, 
are  Tylor's  immediate  data?  Not  a  chronological  succes- 
sion, not  a  stratification  in  the  sense  of  the  geologist's  ob- 
served superimposition  of  layers,  but  merely  a  positive  and 
a  negative  correlation.  The  paternal  features  are  linked 
with  filial  widow-inheritance  or  the  couvade;  the  maternal 
are  not.  Direct  observation  does  not  extend  beyond  the 
perception  of  a  simultaneous  relationship.  The  dwindling 
of  the  couvade  in  the  purely  paternal  stage  might  be  taken 
as  direct  indication  of  the  course  of  social  evolution,  but 
erroneously  so.  If  the  couvade  is  more  common  in  the 
intermediate  status,  this  directly  suggests  no  more  than  that 
certain  features  of  the  full  paternal  system  tend  to  coun- 
teract the  influence  of  certain  other  paternal  features  that 
favored  the  evolution  of  the  custom.  There  are  func- 
tional relations  between  the  phenomena  but  nowhere  is 
a  chronological  order  to  be  discerned.  That  order  is  in- 
jected only  if  we  accept  as  an  axiom  Tylor's  and  Mor- 
gan's belief  in  uniform  laws  of  social  evolution.  Only  on 
that  assumption  is  every  difference  at  once  invested  with  a 
sequential  significance.  Obviously  if  all  peoples  pass 
through  the  same  stages,  then  a  matrilineal  people  has 
either  left  the  patrilineal   stage  behind,   or   is   developing 


176  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

toward  it.  Tylor's  evidence  thus  merely  tends  to  demon- 
strate that  if  there  be  a  definite  sequence  the  matriHneal  stage 
is  the  eariier  one. 

Now  in  regard  to  this  basic  postulate  we  may  first  urge 
Maitland's  caution  that  the  extensive  spread  of  cultural 
traits  by  borrowing  is  bound  to  play  havoc  with  any  hypo- 
thetical tendency  of  communities  tO'  traverse  certain  stages 
in  fixed  succession.  Under  a  powerful  alien  influence  a 
people  with  cultural  elements  naturally  promoting  the  evo- 
lution of  patrilineal  descent  may  be  led  to  adopt  matrilineal 
descent ;  and  vice  versa.  A  number  of  striking  ethno- 
graphic instances  lie  at  hand.  By  far  the  majority  of  the 
Northern  Athabaskan  tribes  are  sibless,  but  so  far  as  au- 
thority and  inheritance  go  they  conform  to  Tylor's  pater- 
nal pattern..  However,  those  Athabaskans  in  immediate 
contiguity  to  the  coastal  tribes  have  modeled  their  organi- 
zation on  their  neighbors',  borrowing  the  rule  of  matri- 
lineal descent.  The  Hopi  are  known  to  be  of  the  same 
linguistic  stock  as  the  Shoshoneans  of  Utah  and  Nevada, 
all  of  whom  are  sibless  and  all  of  whom  lack  even  the 
germs  of  a  matrilineal  scheme.  Accordingly,  the  ances- 
tors of  the  present  Hopi  probably  derived  their  present 
organization  by  borrowing  either  matrilineal  descent  or  the 
conditions  favoring  it  from  their  predecessors  in  the  South- 
west. The  Gros  Ventre  as  a  recent  and  numerically  weak 
offshoot  of  the  sibless  Arapaho  came  into  contact  with  the 
Blackfoot  and  by  assimilation  and  further  development  of 
Blackfoot  ideas  evolved  father-sibs.  Thus  foreign  influ- 
ences will  sometimes  produce  a  change  from  sibless  to 
matrilineal  and  in  others  from  sibless  to  patrilineal  status 
without  cither  condition  being  antecedent  to  tJie  other.  The 
history  of  a  people's  social  organization  will  vary  with  its 
intertribal  relations. 

The  suggestions  made  as  to  the  origin  of  sibs  likewise 
indicate  that  apart  from  borrowing  either  matrilineal  or 
patrilineal  sibs  may  evolve  directly  from  a  sibless  condition. 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SIB  177 

This  view  obviates  a  serious  difficulty,  viz.,  that  of  account- 
ing for  the  hypothetical  change  from  one  rule  of  descent 
to  the  other.  As  already  shown,  Morgan  himself  balked 
at  applying  the  property  principle  to  tribes  among  which 
property  is  infinitesimal.  Moreover,  it  is  not  easy  to  see 
why  a  traditionally  sanctioned  inheritance  rule  should  sud- 
denly rouse  antagonism,  especially  since  a  man  is  as  likely 
to  benefit  as  to  suffer  by  inheriting  from  a  maternal  uncle 
rather  than  from  his  father.  If  certain  Algonkian  tribes 
actually  developed  patrilineal  sibs  from  the  patrilineal  trans- 
mission of  hunting-prerogatives,  while  the  Zuni  evolved 
mother-sibs  from  the  mode  of  matrilocal  residence  with 
feminine  hoi^i^Krtenancy,  the  difficulty  vanishes  since  neither 
rule  of  desert  then  appears  as  a  necessary  antecedent  of 
the  other.  I  am  strongly  of  opinion  that  in  a  large  num- 
ber of  cases,  whether  through  borrowing  or  spontaneous 
evolution,  both  mother-sibs  and  father-sibs  have  grown 
directly  out  of  a  sibless  organization. 

Siberia  is  now  so  well  known  that  it  supplies  an  ideal 
field  for  the  testing  of  any  sociological  doctrines.  What, 
then,  does  this  region  suggest  as  to  the  history  of  sib  or- 
ganization? It  is  remarkable  that  throughout  this  vast 
area  there  is  not  a  single  tribe  that  is  matrilineally  organ- 
ized. The  Chukchi  and  Koryak,  who  represent  the  simplest 
culture,  are  sibless;  so  far  as  inheritance  rules  may  be 
taken  as  indicative  of  potential  development  in  either  direc- 
tion, they  suggest  the  germs  of  a  paternal  organization. 
We  may  assume  that  the  introduction  of  reindeer  as  a 
highly  prized  form  of  property  strengthened  the  importance 
of  patrilineal  kin  but  this  was  not  carried  to  the  creation 
of  definite  father-siljs.  The  history  of  Chukchi  and  Koryak 
society  is  thus  an  extremely  simple  one,  representing 
throughout  a  sibless  status  with  paternal  bias. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  cultural  scale  in  Siberia  are 
peoples  like  the  Kirgiz  and  Yakut,  expert  cattle  and  horse- 
breeders  distinguished   for  their  metallurgic  skill.     These 


178  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

tribes,  like  the  Tungus,  Ostyak  and  Samoyed,  are  organ- 
ized into  definite  exogamous  paternal  sibs.  Furthermore 
we  find  among  all  these  populations  the  functionally  related 
customs  of  clear-cut  bride-purchase  and  patrilocal  resi- 
dence, further  correlated  with  extremely  uniform  treat- 
mei^t  of  women,  who  are  everywhere  regarded  as  inferior. 
That  this  complex  should  have  developed  over  and  over 
again  in  a  continuous  area  is  unthinkable.  In  other  words, 
the  paternal  and  indeed  definitely  patrilineal  features 
evolved  and  spread  over  their  present  range  oi  distribu- 
tion. Of  anything  even  remotely  suggesting  maternal  traits 
there  is  no  trace  here.  We  shall  not  go  far  wrong  in  in- 
ferring that  the  father-sibs  of  this  group  of  aborigines 
developed  directly  from  a  sibless  condition  of  the  Chukchi- 
Koryak  pattern. 

But  intermediate  between  the  Chukchi-Koryak  and  the 
Yakut  and  Tungus  are  the  Yukaghir,  who  are  surrounded 
on  all  sides  by  the  latter  tribe.  The  Yukaghir  differ  from 
all  other  peoples  of  the  region  in  being  matrilocal.  The 
Koryak  serve  for  the  bride  and  in  exceptional  instances 
settle  permanently  in  her  household,  and  these  practices 
seem  to  have  culminated  among  the  Yukaghir  in  normal 
matrilocal  residence.  Nevertheless,  this  feature  has  not 
created  a  matrilineal  kin-group ;  property  is  transmitted 
from  father  to  son  and  the  blood-feud  is  waged  by  the 
paternal  kindred.  Indeed,  the  Yukaghir,  doubtless  owing 
to  Tungus  influence,  have  developed  father-sibs,  though 
without  the  exogamous  rule.  What  is  most  interesting, 
however,  is  the  assimilation  of  Tungus  customs  by  some 
Yukaghir  bands,  and  vice  versa.  The  Yukaghirized  Tun- 
gus no  longer  practise  exogamy ;  the  Tungusized  Yukaghir 
have  adopted  the  custom  of  purchasing  the  bride  with  patri- 
local residence  and  greater  recognition  of  the  sib.  Thus, 
the  development  of  society  instead  of  following  the  same 
stages  among  all  ]icoples  may  even  within  the  same  area 
pursue  its  course  in  cjppositc  directions;  in  one  l^and  con- 


HISTORY   OF   THE    SIB  179 

tact  with  a  non-exog-amous  people  will  loosen  the  sib  bonds, 
while  in  another  contact  with  patrilineal  sibs  will  foster 
inchoate  germs  of  a  paternal  organization. 

In  short,  Siberian  data  lend  no  support  to  the  doctrine 
of  inherent  laws  of  social  progress.  They  show  that  matri- 
local  residence  may  fail  to  produce  matrilineal  descent ; 
they  show  sibless  tribes  with  no  vestige  of  a  former  sib 
system,  whether  maternal  or  paternal,  and  no  apparent  haste 
to  develop  a  definite  patrilineal  system  by  spontaneous  de- 
velopment. Above  all,  they  show  the  extraordinary  level- 
ing influence  of  contact  with  alien  cultures. 

Of  course,  it  would  be  dogmatic  to  deny  that  a  change 
of  descent  according  to  Tylor's  and  Morgan's  scheme  is 
possible.  For  example,  a  fair  case  can  be  made  out  for 
the  relative  priority  of  mother-sibs  in  at  least  parts  of 
Oceania.  First  of  all,  there  is  no  question  that  in  various 
Melanesian  tril>es  matrilineal  sibs  are  observed  phenomena ; 
accordingly,  the  assumption  that  related  peoples  now  patri- 
lineal may  at  one  time  have  been  matrilineal  is  admissible 
as  a  working  hypothesis,  which  gains  in  plausibility  in  view 
of  certain  conditions  of  Melanesian  life.  The  Melanesians, 
like  many  matrilineal  groups,  are  horticultural  and  gar- 
dening often  devolves  on  the  women, — a  situation  previ- 
ously recognized  as  favorable  for  the  development  of 
mother-sibs.  The  avunculate,  though  not  by  itself  decisive 
for  reasons  explained,  can  be  used  as  corroboratory  evi- 
dence in  this  case  because  some  correlation  may  be  assumed 
to  exist  between  it  and  a  matrilineal  system  and  also  be- 
cause in  certain  Oceanian  tribes  the  avuncular  power  ap- 
pears in  exaggerated  form.  Thus,  among  the  patrilineal 
Western  Torres  Straits  Islanders  a  man  would  instantly 
cease  fighting  at  his  maternal  uncle's  l>ehest  while  he  might 
override  the  wishes  of  his  own  father.  Further,  when  we 
pass  in  review  the  matrilineal  tribes  of  the  area,  we  find  a 
series  of  conditions  precisely  of  that  type  which  would 
tend  to  establish  patrilineal  descent  in  a  sibless  community. 


i8o  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Patrilocal  residence  is  universal;  and  while  the  ancient 
hereditary  gardens  are  transmitted  to  the  sister's  son  the 
land  cleared  by  a  man's  individual  efforts  is  inherited  by 
his  children,  as  are  also  his  trees,  which  rank  as  a  distinct 
form  of  property.  The  Kai  data  are  especially  noteworthy. 
Here  the  children  belong  unequivocally  to  the  mother's  kin 
and  inheritance  is  within  the  maternal  line;  however,  suc- 
cession to  the  chieftaincy  is  from  father  to  son  and  only 
secondarily  from  uncle  to  sister's  son.  Residence  is  indeed 
patrilocal  in  the  sense  that  the  bride  follows  her  bridegroom 
to  his  home ;  but,  as  pointed  out,  the  Kai  wife,  though  liv- 
ing in  her  husband's  house,  is  not  permitted  by  her  kin  to 
move  to  a  distant  village  because  they  wish  to  retain  part 
of  her  services.  Given  such  facts,  I  see  no  reason  for 
rejecting  as  impossible  the  theory  countenanced  by  Dr. 
Rivers  that  in  parts  of  Oceania  a  change  from  matrilineal 
to  patrilineal  descent  has  taken  place.  What  I  maintain  is 
that  this  does  not  prove  the  priority  of  matrilineal  descent 
anywhere  else,  say,  in  Australia  or  Siberia  or  America ;  and 
even  in  Oceania  the  matrilineal  condition  may  in  turn  have 
been  superimposed  on  an  earlier  paternal  one. 

Hitherto  the  question  has  not  been  broached  whether 
matrilineal  or  patrilineal  descent  is  generally  coupled  with  a 
higher  form  of  civilization.  The  traditional  view  naturally 
assigns  mother-sibs  to  a  lower  plane,  and  even  so  sane  a 
writer  as  Professor  Hobhouse,  who  declines  to  accept  the 
universality  of  a  matrilineal  stage,  finds  that  broadly 
speaking  maternal  descent  occurs  among  the  uncivilized, 
and  paternal  descent  among  the  civilized  stocks  of  man- 
kind ;  and  that  within  the  range  of  the  uncivilized  races 
maternal  descent  is  coui)led  most  frequently  with  the  lower 
cultures.  It  is  of  course  a  fact  that  the  highest  known 
civilizations,  while  devoid  of  sibs,  are  essentially  paternal 
in  type ;  and  we  know  that  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans 
were  at  one  time  organized  into  father-sibs.  Nevertheless 
it  does  not  follow  that  patrilineal  descent  is  the  uniform 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SIB  i8i 

symptom  of  a  higher  civiHzation.  In  Australia  there  is 
not  the  sHghtest  indication  that  matrilineal  peoples  Hke  the 
Dieri  enjoy  a  poorer  culture  than  the  patrilineal  Arunta. 
Negro  tribes  with  mother-sibs  match  their  patrilineal  con- 
geners in  industrial  activity  and  political  organization.  In 
America  north  of  Mexico,  as  Swanton  has  pointed  out, 
the  tribes  with  mother-sibs  are  on  a  generally  higher  level 
than  those  with  father-sibs.  A  decade  before  Swanton, 
Herr  Cunow,  whose  puerile  pugnacity  must  not  blind  us 
to  his  merits  as  a  painstaking  scholar  and  independent 
thinl-er,  had  already  shown  that  the  North  American  na- 
tives who  cultivate  the  soil  intensively  are  mainly  matri- 
lineal, while  the  tribes  reckoning  descent  from  the  father 
represent  a  lower  economic  condition.  Further,  if  we  em- 
brace in  our  survey  not  only  communities  with  definitely 
organized  sibs  but  also  sibless  tril3es,  which  have  been  shown 
to  possess  a  simpler  culture,  we  find  that  in  the  vast  major- 
ity of  cases  such  germs  of  unilateral  descent  as  exist  are  of 
the  patrilineal  variety.  That  is  to  say,  the  lowest  sibless 
cultures,  so  far  as  they  tend  to  segregate  one  line  of  kin- 
dred by  the  processes  previously  noted,  segregate  the  pa- 
ternal kin.  Thus,  the  Bushmen  had  the  site  of  settlement 
descend  from  father  to  son  and  son's  son ;  not  only  the 
reindeer-breeding  Chukchi  but  also  the  maritime  division 
representing  the  pristine  condition  of  this  people  practise 
filial  inheritance  of  property;  the  Thompson  River  Indians 
of  British  Columbia  and  the  Shasta  of  California  recog- 
nize patrilineal  descent  of  the  title  to  fishing-stations ;  and 
the  influence  of  patrilocal  residence  on  Hupa  and  North- 
eastern Algonkian  life  has  been  sufficiently  discussed.  No 
doubt  instances  of  matrilocal  residence  occur  among  sibless 
tribes ;  but  they  either  alternate  with  patrilocal  residence  or 
are  restricted  to  the  commencement  of  matrimony,  so  that 
they  fail  to  lay  the  basis  of  a  unilateral  sib,  whence  the 
rarity  of  mother-sibs  among  hunting  tribes. 

In  short,  Professor  Hobhouse's  generalization  is  by  no 


i82  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

means  in  accord  with  the  facts.  It  is  true  that  the  highest 
known  civiHzations,  Hke  those  of  the  Chinese,  the  ancient 
Greeks,  and  our  own,  are  predominantly  patrihneal.  But 
this  also  holds  for  the  lowest  known  cultures  so  far  as 
either  side  is  stressed  at  all,  while  the  position  of  matri- 
lineal  peoples  is  intermediate.  Contrary  to  my  intention 
and  previous  declaration,  this  statement  might  be  misin- 
terpreted as  favoring  a  fixed  sequence  of  stages.  I  there- 
fore hasten  to  dispel  this  possibility  by  sketching  what  I 
conceive  a  possible  line  of  evolution  in  a  concrete  hypo- 
thetical case  and  then  showing  that  the  accepted  correla- 
tion between  certain  economic  and  sociological  phenomena 
is  quite  consistent  with  the  view  that  maternal  descent  does 
not  represent  a  universal  stage  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
I  can  imagine  the  Andaman  Islanders,  a  sibless  people 
without  any  noticeable  partiality  for  either  side  of  the 
family,  rising  by  successive  borrowings  to  any  stage  of 
civilization  without  necessarily  developing  either  father- 
sibs  or  mother-sibs.  Whether  under  the  assumed  circum- 
stances they  would  evolve  such  units,  would  depend  very 
largely  on  the  nature,  intensity  and  prolongation  of  alien 
contacts.  I  do  not  mean  to  assert  that  such  industrial  ad- 
vancement as  I  am  assuming  would  have  no  effect  on  the 
social  organization,  but  simply  that  it  need  not  produce 
unilateral  kin  groups.  If,  e.g.,  the  Andaman  Islanders  bor- 
rowed the  blacksmith's  art,  this  industrial  advancement 
would  imply  or  at  least  favor  the  social  evolution  of  a  pro- 
fessional guild.  This  might  develop  into  an  hereditary 
caste,  as  has  actually  happened  among  the  Masai,  but  there 
is  no  necessity  for  such  a  development.  There  might  be 
simply  a  segregation  of  those  having  an  individual  aptitude 
in  this  direction,  producing  indeed  a  trade  guild  and  conse- 
quent complication  of  society,  but  not  an  hereditary  sib. 
Besides,  even  if  the  profession  became  hereditary,  it  would 
not  need  to  create  a  sib  organization  so  long  as  the  entire 
remainder  of  the  population  failed  to  organize  along  simi- 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SIB  183 

lar  lines.  In  other  words,  the  Andaman  Islanders  could 
make  the  leap  from  the  Stone  Age  to  the  Iron  Age  not  in- 
deed without  some  social  readjustment  but  without  adopting 
the  principle  of  unilateral  kinship. 

In  picturing  the  social  history  of  mankind  as  a  whole  it 
is  well  constantly  to  keep  in  mind  the  phenomena  connected 
with  the  sexual  division  of  labor.  I  have  already  shown 
how  matrilineal  descent  might  evolve  in  a  sedentary  com- 
munity where  women  till  the  soil  with  the  hoe.  It  should 
be  noted,  however,  that  where  tillage  is  practised  inten- 
sively, though  still  with  primitive  implements  as  in  the 
higher  American  cultures,  man  usually  assumes  at  least  the 
major  part  of  the  work.  Accordingly  it  is  quite  intelli- 
gible that  under  such  conditions  father-sibs  should  have 
developed.  The  matrilineal  descent  of  the  Pueblo  Indians 
cannot  possibly  be  explained  on  the  same  principles  as  that 
of  the  Hidatsa  because  the  male  Pueblo  plants  and  tends 
the  corn;  it  is  based  on  the  very  different  factor  of  matri- 
local  residence  with  feminine  landlordship.  Without  this 
element  the  Hopi  would  presumably  either  have  remained 
without  unilateral  kinship  groups  or  would  have  organized 
into  father-sibs.  That  is  to  say,  the  gardening  stage  does 
not  necessarily  imply  maternal  descent;  for  since  men  may 
share  or  perform  altogether  the  labor  of  cultivation  (as 
they  do  in  parts  of  America  and  of  Melanesia),  the  con- 
ditions for  the  segregation  of  matrilineal  kin  may  be 
lacking. 

Now,  as  Hahn  has  taught  us.  the  agriculture  of  advanced 
civilizations  rests  on  the  use  of  the  plough  with  the  domes- 
ticated ox  (or  its  equivalent)  and  these  cultural  possessions 
are  certainly  linked  with  the  male  sex.  Domestication  is 
undoubtedly  a  masculine  achievement  and  it  is  interesting 
to  note  the  rigid  taboos  which  sometimes  separate  women 
from  the  herds  and  the  still  more  important  fact  that  in 
the  most  highly  developed  pastoral  tribes  woman  occupies 
a  position  of  definite  inferiority.    That  agriculture  and  do- 


i84  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

mestication  appeared  at  a  later  period  than  horticulture  is 
unquestionable  and  if  they  grew  out  of  horticulture  we 
should  again  have  a  fixed  sequence  of  stages  to  which  there 
would  presumably  correspond  a  parallel  sequence  of  ma- 
ternal and  paternal  descent  according  to  the  time-honored 
scheme.  But  the  assumption  is  not  essential.  Apart  from 
the  fact  that  intensive  gardening,  as  noted  above,  sometimes 
constitutes  man's  share  of  work,  there  is  no  proof  that 
agriculture,  so  different  in  its  methods  from  horticulture, 
developed  out  of  the  latter.  It  is  entirely  possible  that  the 
agricultural  complex  as  evolved  in  Western  Asia  evolved 
independently  of  the  horticultural  complex  through  male 
effort;  and  accordingly  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
the  bearers  of  the  great  historic  cultures  ever  passed 
through  a  maternal  stage.  This  is  not  a  doginatic  denial 
that  any  of  them  ever  reckoned  descent  from  the  mother, 
which  might  in  special  instances  have  occurred  as  a  result 
of  foreign  influences,  but  merely  a  denial  of  the  dogma  that 
they  niitst  once  have  traced  descent  from  the  mother.  For 
example,  I  see  no  reason  why  the  ancestral  Greeks  should 
not  have  passed  directly  from  a  sibless  condition  with  pat- 
ernal bias  into  the  definite  patrilineal  condition  represented 
by  the  genos  and  the  phratria. 

In  viewing  the  phenomena  from  all  parts  of  the  world 
we  cannot  fail  to  note  that  while  definite  patrilineal  descent 
is  often  lacking  an  asymmetrical  stressing  of  paternal  in- 
fluences is  extremely  common.  In  comparison  the  hyper- 
trophy of  matrilineal  factors  appears  as  a  highly  special- 
ized event  superadded  to  rather  than  substituted  for  the 
paternal  traits.  That  is  why  even  in  distinctly  matrilineal 
societies  the  father  and  his  kin  usually  figure  more  promi- 
nently than  do  the  mother  and  her  kin  in  such  distinctly 
paternal  societies  as  those  of  China  and  of  the  Turkic 
nomads.  From  this  point  of  view  we  can  also  comprehend 
the  instability  of  matrilineal  institutions  in  specific  cases, 
e.g.,   in   Oceania.      It   is  not  so   nuich   that   the  maternal 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SIB  185 

factors  have  an  inherent  tendency  to  vanish  in  favor  of  the 
paternal  ones,  but  rather  that  the  paternal  factors,  never 
suppressed  but  merely  in  abeyance  under  specific  conditions, 
reassert  themselves  when  those  conditions  no  longer  hold 
sway.  This  development,  however,  like  all  others,  is  not  an 
inevitable  one  and  will  be  affected  by  the  influence  of 
neighboring  cultures. 

To  sum  up.  There  is  no  fixed  succession  of  maternal 
and  paternal  descent;  sibless  tribes  may  pass  directly  into 
the  matrilineal  or  the  patrilineal  condition ;  if  the  highest 
civilizations  emphasize  the  paternal  side  of  the  family,  so 
do  many  of  the  lowest ;  and  the  social  history  of  a  particular 
people  cannot  be  reconstructed  from  any  generally  valid 
scheme  of  evolution  but  only  in  the  light  of  its  known  and 
probable  cultural  relations  with  neighboring  peoples.  * 

References 

^Morgan,  1871 :  484,  490;  id.,  1877.  Swanton,  1905  (b)  : 
663  ;  id.,  1906:  166.  Martin:  861.  Skeat  and  Blagden  :  1,65; 
II,  62,  258.  Man:  58  seq.,  202.  Schultze:  305.  Rivers, 
1914(a):  67-70.  Lowie,  1915:  231.  Bogoras:  538.  Jochel- 
son,  1908:   759.     Brown:    157. 

^Whiffen:  62,,  66.  Speck,  1918:  143;  id.,  1915  (a)  and 
(b).  Tyler,  1889:  258;  id.,  1896:  81.  Wilson:  9  seq., 
113  seq. 

^  Lowie,  1919  (b)  :    28.     Morgan,  1871  :   475. 

*  Morgan,  1877:  Pt.  11,  Chaps.  2  and  14.  Man:  6y  seq. 
Spencer  and  Gillen,  1904:  524.  Tyler,  1889:  245.  Lewie, 
1919  (a):  29.  Hartland :  i  seq.  Reperts,  v:  144.  Rivers, 
1914  (b)  :  I,  55;  II,  126.  Keysser:  42,  85,  100.  Hobheuse: 
162.  Cunew,  1894:  138  seq.  Bleek  and  Lleyd :  305.  Bogo- 
ras: 679.    Teit,  1900:   293.    Dixon,  1907:   452. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  POSITION  OF  WOMEN 

DIAMETRICALLY  opposite  views  are  current  among 
the  educated  laity  regarding  woman's  place  in  primi- 
tive society.  On  the  one  hand,  she  is  conceived  as  little 
better  than  a  slave  or  beast  of  burden,  condemned  to  per- 
form the  hardest  drudgery,  bought  as  a  commodity,  and 
without  redress  against  her  master's  brutalities.  But  those 
who  have  read  of  tribes  reckoning  descent  from  the  mother 
and  have  imbibed  the  shopworn  anthropological  doctrines 
of  half  a  century  ago  are  likely  to  view  primitive  woman 
as  undisputed  mistress  of  the  family,  if  not  of  communal 
life  as  well.  Both  conceptions,  so  far  as  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  peoples  are  concerned,  fall  ludicrously  wide  of 
the  mark.  However,  there  is  so  much  variability  in  the 
relations  of  woman  to  society  that  any  general  statement 
must  be  taken  with  caution.  It  will  be  best  to  approach 
the  subject  through  a  number  of  different  avenues  before 
venturing  on  even  a  qualified  dictum. 

Theory  and  Practice 

First  of  all,  it  should  be  noted  that  the  treatment  of 
woman  is  one  thing,  her  legal  status  another,  her  opportuni- 
ties for  public  activity  still  another,  while  the  character  and 
extent  of  her  labors  belong  again  to  a  distinct  category. 
Whatever  correlations  exist  between  any  two  of  these  as- 
pects are  empirical;  conceptually  tliey  are  diverse,  and  only 

i86 


THE    POSITION   OF   WOMEN  187 

confusion  can  result  from  ignoring  the  fact.  This  is  at 
once  made  clear  when  we  consider  certain  well-known 
phenomena.  The  harem  beauty  is  not  compelled  to  perform 
the  drudgery  of  a  menial,  yet  her  position  is  not  consistent 
with  our  ideals  of  human  dignity,  and  the  same  applies  in 
only  slightly  lesser  degree  to  the  European  lady  of  quality 
in  the  age  of  chivalr}'-.  In  a  very  different  environment  the 
Toda  women,  while  well-treated,  rank  as  inferior  and  are 
excluded  from  the  ritualistic  observances  that  occupy  the 
foremost  place  in  Toda  culture;  they  are  indeed  left  with 
very  little  employment  on  their  hands,  being  prevented 
even  from  cooking,  at  least  whenever  the  food  contains 
milk  as  an  ingredient.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Andaman 
Island  woman  is  virtually  on  a  plane  of  equality  with  her 
husband,  though  a  somewhat  larger  share  of  the  work  may 
fall  upon  her  shoulders.  In  Central  Asia  a  comparison  of 
Kirgiz  and  Altaian  conditions  is  especially  instructive. 
Both  tribes  assign  to  woman  a  position  of  distinct  inferior- 
ity. The  Kirgiz,  moreover,  possibly  under  the  influence  of 
Islam,  treat  their  wives  with  much  greater  severity  than 
the  Altaian  Turks.  A  superficial  reading  of  Radloff 
might  readily  suggest  that  the  legal  status  of  woman  is 
approximately  the  same  among  both  peoples,  but  that  among 
the  Altaians  her  lot  is  a  decidedly  easier  one.  Closer 
scrutiny,  however,  reveals  the  fact  that  in  spite  of  legal 
conceptions  reinforced  by  religious  sanction,  the  Kirgiz 
woman  is  decidedly  better  off.  Her  Altaian  sister  is  at 
work  from  early  in  the  morning  till  late  at  night,  being 
employed  not  only  about  the  house  but  tending  the  cattle, 
bringing  fuel,  milking  cows,  sheep  and  goats,  manufactur- 
ing all  utensils,  nay,  even  cultivating  the  barley  plots.  The 
men  do  little  but  chop  firewood,  milk  mares,  and  give  sub- 
sidiary help  in  the  manufacture  of  household  articles. 
Among  the  Kirgiz  the  division  of  labor  is  a  far  more 
equitable  one,  for  men  tend  the  cattle,  secure  fuel,  make 
containers,  and  till  the  soil.     Possibly  in  consequence  of 


i88  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

this  very  fact  the  Kirgiz  women  enjoy  a  much  greater 
freedom  than  is  granted  to  their  sex  in  the  AUai :  they 
participate  at  festive  occasions,  visit  back  and  forth  at 
pleasure,  attend  games  and  pubhc  assemblies,  and  take 
part  in  competitive  singing  contests.  In  short,  there  is 
ample  compensation  for  the  reported  harshness  of  treat- 
ment. 

This  case  illustrates  the  great  caution  required  in  sum- 
ming up  the  status  of  the  female  sex  in  a  given  society. 
The  conditions  involved  in  the  relations  of  men  and  women 
are  many-sided  and  it  is  dangerous  to  overweight  one 
particular  phase  of  them.  Least  of  all  should  excessive 
significance  be  attached  to  theory.  Theory  may  and 
does  affect  practice,  but  often  only  in  moderate  degree. 
Theoretically  the  Mohammedan  Kirgiz  may  divorce  his 
wife  at  will,  practically  he  very  rarely  does  so.  Chinese 
metaphysics  associates  the  female  principle  of  the  universe 
with  evil,  and  the  legal  status  of  woman  is  one  of  abject 
inferiority.  This  has  neither  prevented  a  fairly  large 
number  of  women  from  establishing  their  supremacy  in  the 
household  by  sheer  strength  of  personality  nor  from  playing 
an  appreciable  part  in  literature  and  affairs.  If  instead 
of  taking  so  extreme  a  case  we  revert  merely  to  recent 
periods  of  Caucasian  civilization,  we  find  that  American 
women  were  not  maltreated  prior  to  suffrage  amendments ; 
that  disabilities  as  to  holding  or  administering  property 
have  not  involved  subjection  to  a  husband's  will;  that  at 
a  time  in  which  little  was  heard  of  emancipation  the  leaders 
of  the  Parisian  salons  exerted  a  social  influence  hardly  to  be 
overestimated.  In  other  words,  it  is  important  to  ascertain 
what  customary  or  written  law  and  philosophic  theory  have 
to  say  on  feminine  rights  and  obligations.  But  it  is  more 
important  to  know  whether  social  practice  conforms  to 
theory  or  leaves  it  halting  in  the  rear,  as  it  so  frequently 
does.  The  exaggerated  weight  often  ascribed  to  abstract 
propositions  and  legal  enactments  is  part  of  that  perverse 


THE   POSITION    OF   WOMEN  189 

rationalism  which  has  so  often  befuddled  the  under- 
standing of  students  of  human  institutions  and  human 
psychology/ 

The  'Matriarchate 

As  noted,  matrilineal  descent  was  at  one  time  in- 
terpreted to  mean  that  women  govern  not  merely  the 
family  but  also  the  primitive  equivalent  of  the  state. 
Probably  there  is  not  a  single  theoretical  problem  on  which 
modern  anthropologists  are  so  thoroughly  in  accord  as  with 
respect  to  the  utter  worthlessness  of  that  inference.  The 
testimony  of  the  ethnographic  data  is  too  clear  to  be  swept 
aside  by  a  priori  speculation.  Of  the  Australians  some 
tribes  are  matrilineal,  others  patrilineal,  but  the  lot  of 
woman  is  not  one  jot  better  or  more  dignified  among  the 
former.  The  same  holds  for  Melanesia.  In  British  Col- 
umbia the  Tlingit  and  their  neighbors  trace  descent  through 
the  mother,  but  such  authority  as  her  side  exert  over  the 
children  is  wielded  not  by  her  but  by  her  brothers.  Here 
property  of  certain  types  is  highly  prized ;  however,  it  is 
not  held  by  the  women  but  transmitted  with  automatic 
regularity  from  maternal  uncle  to  nephew.  In  Africa  we 
hear  of  female  rulers  but  their  occurrence  seems  independ- 
ent of  the  rule  of  descent  and  no  more  affects  the  status  of 
the  average  Negress  than  the  reign  of  Catherine  the  Great 
affected  the  position  of  Russian  peasant  women. 

There  are  a  few  instances  of  matrilineal  communities, 
so  rare  that  they  can  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand, 
in  which  women  either  exercise  unusual  property  rights 
or  play  a  remarkable  part  in  public  life.  Probably  the  best- 
known  illustrations  are  furnished  by  the  Khasi  of  Assam, 
the  Iroquois,  and  the  Pueblo  Indians. 

Among  the  Khasi  there  is  a  well-nigh  unique  combination 
of  female  prerogatives.  Here  houses,  real  estate  and  the 
prized  family  jew^els  are  not  only  transmitted  in  the  mat- 


I90  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

ernal  line,  as  is  also  the  case  in  British  Columbia,  but  are 
held  by  the  women  of  the  maternal  line,  i.e.,  they  descend 
from  mother  to  daughter.  In  one  locality  even  the  position 
of  pontiff  is  held  by  a  woman,  her  successor  being  chosen 
from  a  group  of  her  female  kin.  Yet  it  would  be  a  griev- 
ous error  to  infer  that  man  counts  for  nought  in  Khasi 
communities.  In  the  household,  in  spite  of  feminine  owner- 
ship, the  woman's  elder  brother  ranks  as  the  head,  and 
when  the  husband  after  initially  matrilocal  residence  estab- 
lishes an  independent  domicile  he  is  its  undisputed  lord; 
moreover,  the  husband's  right  to  kill  an  adulteress  taken 
m  flagrante  delicto  is  recognized  by  customary  law.  Politi- 
call}',  the  sovereignty  is  transmitted  in  the  maternal  line  but 
from  male  to  male  member ;  only  where  male  heirs  are  want- 
ing does  a  woman  succeed,  and  she  in  turn  is  succeeded  by 
her  son  not  her  daughter.  This  system  is  assuredly  called 
matriarchal  only  by  courtesy. 

It  is  probably  the  Iroquois  that  furnish  the  closest  ap- 
proximation to  a  matriarchal  condition.  Here  the  women 
arranged  marriage  and  probably  owned  both  houses  and 
land.  Some  of  the  most  important  ceremonial  organizations 
were  largely  constituted  and  managed  by  women,  from 
whose  numbers  there  were  also  taken  three  of  the  six 
ceremonial  officials  of  each  sib.  Women  nominated  a 
candidate  for  a  vacancy  in  the  council  of  chiefs  and  had  the 
right  of  admonishing  and  impeaching  an  unworthy  chief- 
elect.  Nevertheless  it  remains  a  fact  that  even  among  the 
Iroquois  no  woman  had  a  place  in  the  supreme  council  of 
the  league. 

In  Pueblo  villages  the  status  of  woman  is  decidedly 
less  important  than  among  the  Iroquois.  As  Professor 
Kroeber  has  well  put  the  case,  "it  is  in  the  woman's  owner- 
ship of  the  house  that  the  so-called  matriarchate  of  the 
Zufii  centers  and  rests."  Women  have  no  voice  in  govern- 
mental affairs ;  they  play  a  part,  but  a  subsidiary  one,  in 
ritualism ;  and  even  within  the  houses  men,  so  long  as  they 


THE   POSITION   OF   WOMEN  191 

are   inmates,  are    the    real    masters.      These    observations 
coincide  very  largely  with  my  own  among  the  Hopi. 

The  foregoing  cases  supply  the  a  fortiori  basis  of  the  con- 
clusion that  a  genuine  matriarchate  is  nowhere  to  be  found, 
though  in  a  few  places  feminine  prerogatives  have  evolved  to 
a  marked  degree  in  certain  directions.  Surely  the  fact  that 
such  privileges  are  in  a  handful  of  cases  linked  with  ma- 
ternal descent  does  not  warrant  the  inference  that  maternal 
descent  is  the  efficient  cause,  for  the  phenomena  from  Aus- 
tralia, Melanesia  and  British  Columbia  are  decisive  on  that 
point.  Since  we  have  recognized  maternal  descent  itself 
as  the  result  of  more  fundamental  conditions,  such  as  resi- 
dence and  economic  perfomance  it  will  be  desirable  to  ex- 
amine whether  these,  rather  than  descent,  have  influenced 
feminine  activity  and  rank.  In  other  words,  if  there  is  any 
causal  relationship,  the  sequence  is  likely  to  be  not  maternal 
descent,  hence  matrilocal  residence  and  a  certain  improve- 
ment in  woman's  juridical  status,  but  rather :  matrilocal 
residence,  hence  improved  status  and  possibly  also  maternal 
descent ;  and  similarly  with  the  other  basic  phenomena.  ^ 

Matrilocal  Residence 

The  effects  of  matrilocal  residence  on  woman's  position 
have  already  been  briefly  expounded.  Here,  as  every- 
where, we  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  dazzled  by  catch- 
words or  to  draw  extreme  conclusions  from  a  slender  basis 
of  fact.  The  immediate  result  of  matrilocal  residence  is 
not  feminine  superiority  but  only  the  superiority  of  the 
wife's  kin.  There  is  a  great  difference  between  the  Central 
Eskimo  households  in  which  a  wife  settles  with  her  hus- 
band's family  and  those  where  the  bridegroom  goes  to  his 
wife's  parents;  but  the  difference  does  not  affect  the  status 
of  woman  as  woman.  In  the  former  case  she  becomes  the 
subordinate  of  her  mother-in-law,  in  the  latter  she  remains 
the  subordinate  of  her  own  mother;  and  in  both  cases,  the 


192  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

supreme  ruler  is  a  man,  her  father  or  her  father-in-law. 
Naturally,  when  not  surrounded  by  her  own  relatives,  she 
is  potentially  more  liable  to  abuse  than  where  the  husband 
is  obliged  to  consider  the  sentiments  of  his  parents-in-law 
and  hosts.  Among  the  Kai  the  consistency  of  matrilocal 
residence  with  decided  female  inferiority  appears  clearly. 
While  the  Kai  are  patrilocal  in  form  inasmuch  as  the  bride 
goes  to  her  groom's  dwelling,  they  have  been  shown  to  be 
substantially  matrilocal  since  the  wife's  kin  resist  any  effort 
to  remove  her  beyond  their  sphere  of  influence.  The  result 
is  that  a  man  is  responsible  to  them  for  excessive  maltreat- 
ment of  his  spouse  or  for  destruction  of  her  belongings; 
but  in  any  event  she  remains  a  ward  under  the  tutelage  of 
some  male,  whether  it  be  her  brother  or  maternal  uncle  or 
grandfather.  It  is  further  clear  that  matrilocal  residence 
by  limiting  polygynous  unions  also^  tends  to  eliminate  those 
difficulties  to  which  a  woman  is  sometimes  exposed  through 
conjugal  favoritism  in  a  polygynous  household.  Alto- 
gether, then,  there  can  be  no  question  that  practically  woman 
profits  from  continued  residence  under  her  parents'  roof; 
but  this  need  not  in  the  least  emancipate  her  from  the  thral- 
dom of  an  alien  will ;  and  where,  as  among  the  Yukaghir, 
the  husband  may  ultimately  gain  the  mastery  over  the  house- 
hold, she  will  then  be  in  exactly  the  same  position  as  though 
she  had  settled  with  him  from  the  start. 

The  situation  must  be  radically  different  where  the  house 
is  owned  l)y  the  women.  Under  such  conditions  matrilocal 
residence  verital>ly  gives  to  woman  the  whiphand  insofar 
as  she  may  then  banish  her  husband  from  the  home,  as  hap- 
pens among  the  Pueblo  tribes.  This  assuredly  is  an  advan- 
tage in  marital  relations  but  it  does  not  affect  man  so  seri- 
ously as  might  be  supposed  at  first  blush  since  he  is  always 
certain  of  a  welcome  from  his  mother  or  one  of  his  sisters, 
i.e.,  he  always  finds  shelter  through  a  recognized  claim  on 
his  house-owning  female  kin. 


THE   POSITION    OF    WOMEN  193 

The  Economic  Interpretation 

Economic  factors  have  palpably  moulded  some  aspects  of 
latter-day  civilization  and  in  some  schemes  of  interpretation 
they  have  come  to  play  an  exaggerated  part.  The  problem 
how  and  how  far  they  have  fashioned  the  status  of  woman 
is  one  of  extraordinary  intricacy,  and  here  we  must  be 
particularly  careful  to  specify  our  precise  meaning.  A  far- 
reaching  economic  change  seems  bound  to  produce  a  modi- 
fication of  some  sort  in  woman's  life,  in  her  share  of  work 
if  in  nothing  else  as  an  immediate  consequence.  Yet  the 
Amur  River  fishermen,  the  Chinese  agriculturists,  the 
Turkic  horsemen  and  cattle-breeders,  and  the  Ostyak  rein- 
deer nomads,  all  share  essentially  the  same  conception  of 
the  female  sex.  If  it  be  objected  that  these  peoples,  how- 
ever diverse  in  their  mode  of  life,  are  at  one  in  the  impor- 
tant feature  that  woman  does  not  materially  add  to  the 
food-supply,  we  turn  to  regions  like  South  Africa  and 
South  America  and  find  that  while  there  women  plant  and 
harvest  they  are  not  indeed  in  a  humiliating  but  still  in  a 
decidedly  subordinate  position.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
are  hunting  tribes,  like  the  Vedda  and  the  Andaman  Island- 
ers, where  woman  contributes  only  moderately  to  the  com- 
missary department  yet  ranks  as  man's  equal  in  society. 

There  is  one  gross  correlation,  nevertheless,  that  has  con- 
siderable empirical  support  and  has  been  repeatedly  em- 
phasized. Among  stock-raising  populations  the  status  of 
woman  is  almost  uniformly  one  of  decided  and  absolute  in- 
feriority. Thus  Professor  Hobhouse  finds  that  the  per- 
centage of  cases  in  which  woman  occupies  a  low  rung  in  the 
social  scale  is  73  among  cultivators  of  the  soil,  but  rises  to 
87.5  among  pastoral  tribes.  On  economic  grounds  the  mat- 
ter is  readily  explained.  The  domestication  of  animals  was 
undoubtedly  a  masculine  achievement  and  practically  every- 
where the  care  of  the  herds  has  remained  a  masculine  occu- 
pation.    But  such  complete  dissociation  of   woman   frc«n 


194  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

productive  toil  is  bound,  according  to  the  argument,  to  lead 
to  her  social  degradation.  In  my  opinion  this  consideration 
should  be  extended  to  agricultural  (as  distinguished  from 
horticultural)  tribes.  For,  as  Hahn  has  taught,  it  is  not 
merely  domestication  but  also  plough-culture  that  is  linked 
with  masculine  effort  in  the  history  of  civilization.  We 
thus  find  a  very  plausible  explanation  of  the  relation  of  the 
sexes  throughout  those  centers  of  Old  World  civilization 
v^hich  supplied  the  basis  for  our  own.  We  see  why  the 
economically  dependent  women  of  China,  of  Central  Asia, 
and  India  should  be  on  an  unequivocally  lower  plane  than 
man. 

Nevertheless  I  do  not  feel  that  the  case  for  a  necessary 
causal  connection  is  so  strong  as  it  at  first  appears.  No 
one  doubts  that  the  cultivation  of  barley,  millet  and  wheat, 
the  domestication  of  the  ox  and  the  horse,  the  use  of  the 
plough  and  the  wheel,  are  features  which  have  originated 
once  and  have  been  diffused  over  wide  areas.  It  is  accord- 
ingly possible  to  assume  that  the  sociological  correlate  of 
this  economic  development,  viz.,  woman's  lower  status, 
was  only  an  historical  accident.  That  is  to  say,  it  so  hap- 
pened that  at  a  certain  period  and  in  a  certain  region  the 
economic  dependence  of  woman  led  to  her  being  assigned 
to  a  low  status,  that  this,  however,  was  not  a  necessary  con- 
sequence but  one  that  might  have  been  precluded  by  an 
appropriate  complex  of  ethical  or  other  ideological  concep- 
tions. These  happened  to  be  lacking  and  accordingly  the 
empirical  association  of  inferior  status  with  non-partici- 
pation in  an  advanced  economic  system  could  evolve  once, 
was  disseminated  as  a  unit,  and  has  persisted  from  sheer 
conservatism. 

I  myself  believe  that  the  forces  of  suggestibility  and 
mental  inertia  are  shown  to  be  so  powerful  by  anthropologi- 
cal evidence  that  the  propagation  and  preservation  of  an 
accidental  complex  is  entirely  possible.  It  may  be  contended 
that  the  very  fact  of  extended  diffusion  and  prolonged  re- 


THE   POSITION   OF   WOMEN  195 

tention  argues  an  inherent  fitness  in  the  combination  dif- 
fused and  retained.  That  much  may  be  conceded.  On  the 
other  hand  we  find  that  among  the  Hottentot  pastoral  Hfe 
goes  amicably  hand  in  hand  with  sexual  equality,  while 
among  the  neighboring  Bantu  where  the  women  till  the  soil 
they  occupy  a  lower  position.  These  facts  are  certainly 
favorable  neither  to  the  doctrine  that  economic  activity 
automatically  raises  woman's  status,  nor  to  the  theory  that 
pastoral  life  as  such  prejudices  her  status.  The  economic 
factor  is  perhaps  an  efficient  cause  but  at  best  it  is  only 
one  of  a  series  of  determinants,  so  that  its  effects  may  be 
minimized  and  even  obliterated  by  others.  For  example, 
a  well-defined  religious  tenet  might  retard  or  even  prevent 
Hottentot  acceptance  of  the  sociological  inferiority  of 
woman  though  the  people  might  willingly  adopt  the  utili- 
tarian essentials  of  the  stock-raising  complex. 

We  have  here  touched  the  important  principle  that  a 
people  may  adopt  part  of  a  diffused  complex.  But  it  is  the 
sociological  as  well  as  the  utilitarian  constituent  that  may 
spread  independently  of  the  residue,  and  I  am  firmly  con- 
vinced that  this  has  taken  place  so  as  to  obscure  the  causal 
nexus  between  economic  life  and  feminine  status.  What- 
ever ultimate  fitness  there  may  be  in  the  observed  phenom- 
ena, the  immediate  reason  for  the  views  held  with  regard 
to  women  in  a  great  part  of  Asia  is  that  the  people  enter- 
taining those  views  have  been  in  contact  with  other  peoples 
holding  the  same  views.  This  becomes  obvious  on  discover- 
ing that  we  are  not  dealing  with  a  vague  but  with  a  per- 
fectly defined  notion  as  to  feminine  inferiority.  As  the 
Kirgiz  case  indicates,  that  notion  does  not  involve  seclusion 
as  in  some  other  parts  of  the  world.  It  does  involve  the 
principle  that  woman  is  a  dependent,  a  chattel  that  may  be 
sold  to  the  highest  bidder,  may  be  inherited  by  her  husband's 
kin,  and  being  property  is  incapable  of  holding  property. 
When  these  identical  notions  occur  among  the  Syryan, 
Ostyak,  Altaian,  Kirgiz  and  other  tribes  occupying  a  con- 


196  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

tinuous  area,  it  is  manifest  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  defi- 
nite ethnographic  trait  that  has  been  diffused  over  the  terri- 
tory in  question.  This  becomes  a  certainty  when  we  find  that 
among  the  palaeo-Asiatic  tribes  of  eastern  Siberia  woman, 
while  still  on  a  lower  level  than  man,  does  not  approximate 
the  West  Siberian  woman  in  the  humility  of  her  station. 
Thus  the  Chukchi  woman  is  not  bought  by  her  husband, 
may  leave  him  on  provocation,  and  is  not  debarred  from 
owning  property.  Some  changes  have  been  brought  about 
in  her  lot  by  the  introduction  of  reindeer,  as  will  be  seen 
later,  but  she  has  not  by  any  means  been  reduced  to  the  level 
of  her  Ostyak  sister  because  her  status  is  fixed  to  a  pre- 
dominant extent  by  the  past  culture  of  the  Chukchi  and 
their  neighbors,  and  that  status  a  new  economic  factor  can- 
not simply  blot  out  of  existence. 

That  woman's  position  in  a  particular  tribe  is  indeed  a 
function  of  the  historical  relations  of  the  people  under 
examination,  becomes  clear  when  we  turn  to  Oceania  and 
Australia.  The  outstanding  characteristics  of  feminine  in- 
feriority in  this  area  are  very  different  from  those  which 
impress  us  in  Siberia.  Throughout  most  of  Australia,  as 
well  as  in  parts  of  Melanesia  and  New  Guinea,  we  find  a 
strong  tendency  to  separate  the  sexes,  sometimes  even  at 
meals  and  most  emphatically  on  ceremonial  occasions.  The 
consequent  exclusion  of  women  from  public  life  stands  in 
striking  contrast  to  her  participation  in  Kirgiz  festivities 
and  shows  how  variable  may  be  the  content  of  the  catch- 
word 'inferiority.'  But  it  cannot  be  mere  accident  that 
so  sharply  defined  a  conception  is  spread  over  the  South 
Seas;  the  occurrence  of  the  phenomenon  in  any  specific 
locality  of  that  area  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  circumstance 
that  the  locality  forms  part  of  a  geographical  region  over 
which  the  trait  has  been  diffused.  Whatever  may  be  the 
origin  of  the  custom,  its  secondary  cause  and  accordingly  its 
scientific  explanation  lies  not  in  any  economic  factor  but  in 
historical  and  geographical  relations. 


THE   POSITION   OF   WOMEN  197 

North  American  data  furnish  corroborative  testimony. 
In  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  continent  the  Indians, 
whatever  may  be  woman's  position,  do  not  maintain  the 
sedulous  separation  of  the  sexes  so  conspicuous  in  the 
South  Seas.  The  importance  of  the  Iroquois  women  in 
rituahsm  has  already  been  noted.  Even  in  tribes  where 
their  status  is  much  less  exalted,  they  take  part  in  cere- 
monial performances,  and  among  some  of  the  Plains  In- 
dians the  notion  that  husband  and  wife  are  one  person  cere- 
monially appears  clearly  in  the  transfer  and  care  of  sacred 
objects.  It  cannot  be  an  accident  that  all  suggestions  of  a 
sexual  dichotomy  of  society  are  reported  from  the  vicinity 
of  the  Pacific  coast.  Only  in  Alaska  have  the  Eskimo  men 
a  house  from  which  women  are  excluded ;  only  among  the 
Northern  Athabaskans  are  girls  segregated  from  Ixiys  and 
women  barred  from  attendance  at  any  dances ;  only  in  Cali- 
fornia do  we  encounter  men's  societies  comparable  in  the 
jealous  exclusion  of  the  female  sex  to  the  organizations  of 
Melanesia.  The  reason  why  the  Hupa  men  sleep  apart 
from  the  women  is  probably  that  they  have  had  cultural 
relations  with  other  Calif ornian  populations  which  favored 
that  arrangement.  For  all  tril>es  except  the  one  which 
evolved  the  diffused  phenomenon  its  efficient  cause  is  not 
this  or  that  economic  factor  but  simply  borrowing.  In  the 
usually  unknown  place  of  origin  economic  factors  may 
conceivably  have  been  at  work ;  everywhere  else  their  func- 
tion must  have  been  at  most  selective,  i.e.,  they  may  have 
favored  or  arrested  diffusion  without  acting  as  a  creative 
force.  This  view  explains  at  once  why  tribes  utterly  di- 
verse in  their  means  of  sustenance  have  come  to  share  the 
identical  view  of  woman,  a  fact  that  remains  quite  mystify- 
ing on  the  economic  theory. 

A  gross  consideration  of  the  economic  data  thus  fails 
to  indicate  a  particularly  close  correlation  between  them  and 
woman's  position.  To  repeat  some  of  the  more  significant 
facts.      In   horticultural    communities    of    Melanesia    and 


198  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

South  America  where  women  hoe  the  plots  their  prestige  is 
less  than  in  such  hunting  tribes  as  the  Vedda  or  Andaman 
Islanders.  Pastoral  life  has  not  degraded  the  Hottentot 
woman.  Everywhere  the  influence  of  intertribal  cultural 
relations  is  shown  to  have  been  enormous. 

Nevertheless  it  is  highly  desirable  to  make  a  more  pre- 
cise study  of  the  possible  influence  of  economic  usages.  A 
number  of  significant  problems  suggest  themselves  to  the 
ethnographer,  but  generally  the  concrete  information  is 
lacking  for  their  solution.  Thus,  of  all  the  Bantu  the 
Herero  are  the  only  purely  stock-raising  people.  Accord- 
ingly it  would  be  interesting  to  compare  the  status  of  their 
women  with  that  of  the  neighboring  Ovambo,  where  breed- 
ing goes  hand  in  hand  with  gardening.  But  I  am  not 
acquainted  with  any  adequate  source  of  enlightenment  for 
this  subject.  Again,  the  Navaho  have  developed  into  a  pros- 
perous pastoral  people  since  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards, 
but  we  are  ignorant  of  the  social  condition  of  their  women 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  Plains  Indians  furnish  in- 
stances of  purely  hunting  tribes  and  of  closely  related  tribes 
combining  corn-planting  with  the  chase ;  but  it  may  reason- 
ably be  objected  that  since  all  of  them  depended  very  largely 
on  the  buffalo,  the  presence  or  absence  of  crops  could  not 
produce  any  profound  social  transformation.  Certainly 
there  is  no  sensible  difference  between  the  status  of  woman 
among  the  semi-sedentary  Hidatsa  and  among  the  nomadic 
Crow,  their  next  of  kin.  In  Melanesia  local  differences 
have  been  recorded  as  to  the  sexual  division  of  horticultural 
labor,  but  adequate  data  with  special  reference  to  correlated 
sociological  customs  are  not  available. 

Probably  the  most  satisfactory  case  for  our  purpose  is 
that  of  the  Chukchi,  being  fully  described  in  Bogoras'  eth- 
nographical masterpiece.  The  Chukchi  were  originally  a 
maritime  hunting  people  resembling  the  Eskimo  in  their 
general  mode  of  life.     Part  of  the  tribe  adopted  reindeer- 


THE   POSITION   OF   WOMEN  199 

breeding  with  the  result  that  there  are  now  hving  side  by 
side  two  branches  of  the  same  stock  with  identical  cultural 
traditions  and  differing  solely  in  point  of  economic  life. 
Hence  the  economic  factor  can  here  be  isolated  from  other 
causes  with  as  close  an  approximation  to  completeness  as 
possible.  How,  then,  does  the  status  of  woman  compare 
in  Maritime  and  Reindeer  Chukchi  society?  If  we  are 
willing  to  cover  a  wide  range  of  facts  with  vague  catch- 
words, we  shall  detect  no  difference,  for  in  both  groups 
woman  assuredly  ranks  as  subordinate  to  man.  The  differ- 
ences are  nevertheless  interesting.  The  sea-expeditions  of 
the  Maritime  hunters  are  arduous  and  full  of  danger;  nat- 
urally women  undertake  these  masculine  pursuits  only  under 
extreme  necessity.  Among  the  Reindeer  Chukchi  it  hap- 
pens more  frequently  that  girls  take  the  place  of  men  as 
herders,  being  thus  able  to  lead  an  independent  existence, 
and  the  wife  normally  assists  in  tending  the  animals  besides 
doing  all  the  skinning  and  butchering.  To  the  Reindeer 
nomad  marriage  is  a  necessity:  "no  man  can  live  a  toler- 
able life  without  having  a  separate  house  of  his  own  and 
a  woman  to  take  care  of  it."  A  man  needs  some  one  to 
mend  and  dry  his  clothes,  he  requires  assistance  with  the 
herd,  and  unlike  his  sedentary  brother  he  must  have  a 
woman  to  take  care  of  his  traveling-tent.  Hence  it  is  not 
surprising  to  learn  that  celibacy  is  somewhat  more  common 
among  the  sea-hunters,  but  woman's  indispensableness  in 
the  nomadic  bands  is  coupled  with  a  remarkable  increase  of 
her  work.  Her  household  duties  have  multiplied  and  eco- 
nomic labors  have  been  superadded.  The  Maritime  hunter 
is  hardly  ever  able  to  support  more  than  one  wife ;  among 
the  nomads  polyg}aious  families  occur  with  relative  fre- 
quency, indeed,  a  wealthy  breeder  will  aspire  to  have  one 
woman  for  each  of  his  herds.  Among  the  Maritime  Chuk- 
chi a  woman  is  almost  bound  to  Idc  a  dependent;  with  the 
Reindeer  people  a  widow  has  an  opportunity  of  administer- 
ing her  husband's  herds  during  her  children's  minority  and, 


200  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

failing  issue,  she  may  even  lord  it  over  a  second  husband 
by  virtue  of  her  legacy. 

The  alterations  produced  among  the  Chukchi  by  the  in- 
troduction of  reindeer  are  thus  none  the  less  significant 
because  they  cannot  be  pigeonholed  as  either  lowering  or 
exalting  woman's  position.  In  a  Maritime  community  she 
is  a  non-producer  living  a  fairly  easy  life  but  uniformly 
supported  by  man;  with  the  Reindeer  Chukchi  she  is  eco- 
nomically active,  is  subject  to  a  far  harder  lot  on  the  aver- 
age, but  has  a  better  chance  to  achieve  independence.  The 
Chukchi  case  thus  proves  that  economic  phenomena  can  be 
efficient  causes  in  the  development  of  feminine  status. 

But  in  view  of  the  current  tendency  to  overestimate  eco- 
nomic motives  it  is  worth  while  insisting  that  they  merely 
constitute  a  co-determinant.  If  we  compare  the  Reindeer 
Chukchi  with  the  Ostyak,  there  are  differences  inexplicable 
through  economic  conditions  since  those  conditions  are 
alike.  The  Reindeer  Chukchi  does  not  buy  his  wife  and  he 
acquires  none  of  the  absolute  rights  of  an  Ostyak  husband ; 
his  wife  may  leave  him  or  be  carried  ofif  by  her  family 
notwithstanding  his  services  before  marriage.  Again, 
under  Ostyak  custom  a  widow  cannot  inherit  a  herd  of 
reindeer  because  no  woman  can  hold  property,  hence  all 
women  are  necessarily  life-long  dependents.  In  other 
words,  it  is  the  pre-existing  culture  that  largely  determines 
how  a  new  economic  factor  shall  affect  woman's  status. 
Since  the  Chukchi  held  no  anterior  conception  as  to 
woman's  inability  to  hold  property,  it  was  possible  for  the 
new  factor  to  bring  about  a  result  that  is  barred  by  Ostyak 
ideology.  If  the  Chukchi  had  conceived  woman  as  a  pur- 
chasable commodity,  they  would  have  substituted  reindeer 
for  bride-service ;  but  their  cultural  traditions  precluded 
that  result.  It  might  be  objected  that  the  time  element 
must  be  considered;  that  if  the  Chukchi  had  owned  rein- 
deer for  a  sufficiently  long  period,  the  results  due  to  rein- 
deer-breeding would  be  far  more  intensive.     But  this  is  an 


THE   POSITION    OF    WOMEN  20[ 

idle  assertion  until  it  is  supported  by  some  evidence ;  and 
if  the  Chukchi  women  were  some  time  reduced  to  the  level 
of  their  Ostyak  sisters,  it  would  l>e  a  serious  question 
whether  the  cause  is  to  be  sought  in  the  common  economic 
factor  or  rather,  as  would  be  my  first  assumption,  in  the 
gradual  extension  by  borrowing  of  sociological  notions 
found  in  the  more  western  parts  of  Sil:>eria. 

To  sum  up.  The  economic  factor  appears  to  have  po- 
tency, but  potency  of  a  strictly  limited  kind,  liable  tO'  be  off- 
set and  even  negatived  by  other  determinants.^ 

Correlation  with  Stages  of  Civilization 

Hitherto  nothing  has  been  said  explicitly  as  to  the  cor- 
relation of  a  higher  status  of  woman  with  a  higher  stage  of 
civilization.  However,  from  facts  cited  it  is  already  clear 
what  attitude  the  ethnologist  must  assume  toward  the  popu- 
lar opinion  that  woman's  status  is  a  sure  index  of  cultural 
advancement.  That  proposition  is  utterly  at  variance  with 
the  ethnographic  data.  In  the  very  simplest  hunting  com- 
munities, among  the  Andaman  Islanders  and  the  Vedda, 
woman  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  man's  peer.  This  does 
not  hold  for  most  of  the  higher  primitive  levels,  say,  for  the 
average  Bantu  village,  where  woman,  though  hardly  a  mere 
slave,  does  not  at  all  events  rank  as  man's  equal.  Finally, 
on  the  still  higher  plane  of  Central  Asia  and  China  woman 
is  definitely  conceived  as  an  inferior  being.  Or,  to  look  at 
the  matter  from  another  angle,  George  Eliot  and  Mme. 
Recamier,  in  spite  of  their  social  influence,  did  not  even  re- 
motely approach  the  legal  position  of  the  average  Iroquois 
matron. 

This  leads  us  back  to  the  original  proposition  that  the 
codified,  or  at  least  rationalized,  customary  law  is  not  a 
uniformly  trustworthy  criterion  of  social  phenomena.  It 
is  true  that  in  by  far  the  majority  of  both  primitive  and 
more  complex  cultures  woman  enjoys,  if  we  apply  our  most 


202  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

advanced  ethical  standards,  a  less  desirable  position  than 
man.  But  the  frequent  assumption  that  she  is  generally- 
abused  or  enslaved  as  compared  with  her  Caucasian  sister 
is  a  travesty  of  the  facts.  In  some  regions,  as  among  the 
Northern  Athabaskans,  women  were  undoubtedly  obliged 
to  perfomi  the  heaviest  tasks  and  in  addition  were  brutally 
maltreated  by  their  masters.  But  it  cannot  be  too  vehem- 
ently stated  that  well-authenticated  instances  of  this  sort 
are  of  extreme  rarity.  Much  nearer  to  what  may  be  con- 
sidered the  average  primitive  condition  is  that  reported  by 
Spencer  and  Gillen  for  Central  Australia:  "Taking  every- 
thing into  account,  .  .  .  the  life  of  one  of  these  savage 
women,  judged  from  the  point  of  view  of  her  requirements 
in  order  to  make  life  more  or  less  comfortable,  is  far  from 
being  the  miserable  one  that  is  so  often  pictured."  Usually 
the  division  of  labor  is  an  equitable  one.  Often,  to  be  sure, 
the  wife  appears  constantly  occupied,  while  her  husband 
enjoys  prolonged  periods  of  rest ;  but  by  way  of  compensa- 
tion his  work,  as  among  the  Eskimo,  is  of  a  more  strenuous 
character  and  subjects  him  to  frequent  jeopardy  of  life  and 
limb.  As  to  property  rights,  even  among  bride-buying 
tribes  the  logical  consequences  of  purchase  have  been  sel- 
dom drawn  in  rigorous  fashion.  Except  in  rare  instances 
woman  holds  property  and  disposes  of  it  at  will.  In  buying 
ethnographic  specimens  in  North  America  I  never  encoun- 
tered an  Indian  who  would  part  with  one  of  his  wife's  pos- 
sessions or  set  a  price  for  them  prior  to  consultation  with 
her,  and  South  American  travelers  recount  similar  experi- 
ences. Apart  from  theory,  primitive  woman  by  force  of 
her  personality  is  proba1)ly  as  often  the  ruling  spirit  of  her 
home  as  with  us.  This,  as  noted  above,  is  equally  true  in 
the  sophisticated  civilization  of  China,  despite  the  abstract 
propositions  as  to  feminine  depravity  concocted  by  native 
philosophers. 

Regarding  feminine  disal)ilitics,  it  is  necessary  to  allude 
to  one   feature  of   primitive  psychology, — the   widespread 


THE   POSITION   OF   WOMEN  203 

horror  of  menstruation.  This  has  often  led  to  the  segre- 
gation of  women  in  separate  huts  during  the  period  of  ill- 
ness,— a  usage  so  persistent  that  I  was  able  to  observe  it  in 
full  vigor  among  the  Idaho  Shoshoni  as  late  as  1906.  I 
have  little  doubt  that  it  is  the  fear  of  pollution  from  this 
cause  that  accounts  for  much  of  the  debarment  of  women 
from  activities  invested  with  an  atmosphere  of  sanctity.  It 
is  indeed  sometimes  avowedly  the  reason  for  dissociating 
women  from  certain  sacred  objects.  Even  educated  In- 
dians have  been  known  to  remain  under  the  sway  of  this 
sentiment,  and  its  influence  in  moulding  savage  conceptions 
of  the  female  sex  as  a  whole  should  not  be  underrated. 
The  monthly  seclusion  of  women  has  been  accepted  as  a 
proof  of  their  degradation  in  primitive  communities,  but 
it  is  far  more  likely  that  the  causal  sequence  is  to  be  re- 
versed and  that  her  exclusion  from  certain  spheres  of  activ- 
ity and  consequently  lesser  freedom  is  the  consequence  of 
the  awe  inspired  by  the  phenomena  of  periodicity. 

That  neither  this  superstitious  sentiment  nor  man's  physi- 
cal superiority  has  produced  a  far  greater  debarment  of 
primitive  woman,  that  she  is  generally  well  treated  and 
able  to  influence  masculine  decision  regardless  of  all  theory 
as  to  her  inferiority  or  impurity,  that  it  is  precisely  among 
some  of  the  rudest  peoples  that  she  enjoys  practical  equal- 
ity with  her  mate, — these  are  the  general  conclusions  which 
an  unbiased  survey  of  the  data  seem  to  establish.  If  con- 
trary statements  have  been  sometimes  made  with  much 
vehemence,  they  relate  either  to  exceptional  tribes  like  the 
Chipewyan,  or  they  are  the  result  of  misunderstanding, — 
most  commonly  of  the  observation  that  primitive  man  does 
not  practise  that  sentimental  gallantry  which  comes  to  us  as 
a  heritage  of  the  middle  ages  and  which  progressive  women 
themselves  repudiate  as  prejudicial  to  their  dignity  as  human 
beings,* 


204  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

References 

^  Radloff :  295,  313,  462,  484. 

-  Gurdon  :  66  seq.,  76  seq.  82,  93.  Goldenweiser,  1912:  468, 
Kroeber,  191 7  (a)  :  89. 

^  Seligmann :  88.  Man :  107.  Hobhouse :  177.  Theal :  i, 
49,  117.     Castren:    297  seq. 

^Spencer  and  Gillen,  1904:   33. 


CHAPTER  IX 
Property 

NOTIONS  of  property  tinge  every  phase  of  social  life. 
Marriage  is  in  part  consummated  by  the  transfer  of 
commodities  and  the  woman  acquired  as  a  mate  may  her- 
self be  regarded  as  a  chattel,  a  conception  that  reacts  on  her 
status  in  the  family.  Polygyny  was  seen  to  depend  on  the 
husband's  fortune;  and  at  least  among  the  Wahuma  tem- 
porary polyandry  results  from  the  lack  of  property  for  the 
purchase  of  an  individual  spouse.  If  the  theory  advanced 
in  this  book  is  valid,  the  transmission  of  property  has  been 
a  potent  factor  in  the  creation  of  the  sib  organization ;  and 
in  a  subsequent  chapter  will  be  traced  the  influence  that 
wealth  exerts  on  the  development  of  rank  and  castes.  So 
a  volume  might  easily  be  written  solely  on  the  functions  of 
property  in  society.  In  the  present  chapter  we  are  con- 
cerned more  particularly  with  the  manner  in  which  it  is 
held  and  inherited,  and  in  the  forms  it  assumes  among  prim- 
itive peoples ;  and  above  all  must  be  attacked  a  moot-prob- 
lem of  long  standing,  the  question  in  how  far  primitive 
tribes  recognize  individual  ownership  at  all  or  merely  prac- 
tise communism. 

Primitive  Communism 

Those  who  set  out  with  the  evolutionary  dogma  that 
every  social  condition  now  found  in  civilization  must  have 
developed  from  some  condition  far  removed  from  it  through 
a  series  of  transitional  stages,  will  consistently  embrace  the 

205 


2o6  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

hypothesis  that  the  property  sense  so  highly  developed  with 
us  was  wholly  or  largely  wanting  in  primitive  society,  that 
it  must  have  evolved  from  its  direct  antithesis,  communism 
in  goods  of  every  kind.  This  assumption  is  demonstrably 
false;  nevertheless  something  may  be  urged  in  extenuation 
of  those  who  deny  to  savages  and  to  early  man  the  notion 
of  private  ownership. 

In  the  first  place,  while  full-fledged  communism,  to  the 
exclusion  of  all  personal  rights,  probably  never  occurs,  col- 
lective ownership,  not  necessarily  by  the  entire  community 
but  possibly  by  some  other  group,  is  common.  As  mar- 
riage was  seen  to  be  in  certain  respects  an  arrangement 
between  groups  of  kindred,  so  property  is  often  associated 
with  a  group  rather  than  with  an  individual.  That  pro- 
found and  in  the  highest  sense  historically-minded  thinker, 
Sir  Henry  Maine,  was  so  powerfully  impressed  with  certain 
phenomena  he  had  observed  in  India  that  he  set  forth  the 
theory  of  collective  ownership  as  the  ancient  condition  gen- 
erally preceding  personal  property  rights.  'Tt  is  more  than 
likely,"  he  writes  in  Ancient  Law,  "that  joint-ownership 
and  not  separate  ownership  is  the  really  archaic  institution, 
and  that  the  forms  of  property  which  will  afford  us  instruc- 
tion will  be  those  which  are  associated  with  the  rights  of 
families  and  of  groups  of  kindred."  Joint-ownership,  as 
already  stated,  is  by  no  means  necessarily  communal  owner- 
ship. The  co-proprietors  may  be  a  pair  of  partners,  an 
individual  household,  a  club,  a  religious  fraternity,  a  sib 
or  that  fraction  of  a  sib  comprising  only  close  kindred 
through  either  father  or  mother.  But  there  are  conditions 
where  an  entire  village  is  settled  by  men  of  one  father-sib 
who  jointly  own  the  arable  and  waste.  In  such  a  case  the 
landowning  corporation  and  the  commune  coincide  and 
there  is  accc^rdingly  veritable  communism  within  the  pre- 
cincts of  the  village. 

Secondly,  a  Icf/al  state  of  communism  Is  often  simulated 
by  phenomena  belonging  to  quite  a  different  category  of 


PROPERTY  207 

social  thought.  Even  in  our  highly  sophisticated  civiliza- 
tion the  law  sometimes  fails  to  prevail  l^ecause  jurors  are 
swayed  by  ethical  conceptions  which  public  opinion  exalts 
above  the  decrees  of  jurisprudence.  Where  law  is  uncodi- 
fied and  possibly  every  tribesman  is  linked  with  every  other 
by  some  personal  bond,  the  practical  effect  of  such  senti- 
ments is  proportionately  greater.  Nevertheless,  though  the 
juridical  point  of  view  may  become  blurred,  it  is  rarely 
effaced ;  and  in  many  instances  the  line  of  demarcation  is 
drawn  with  unmistakable  clearness.  Thus  hospitality  is  a 
primary  element  of  Plains  Indian  etiquette.  A  host  who 
should  not  regale  a  visitor  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night 
with  such  provisions  as  were  at  his  command  would  be  set 
down  as  a  churl  and  lose  his  standing  in  the  community. 
But  it  is  a  far  cry  from  this  generosity  enforced  by  stand- 
ards of  ethics  and  good  breeding  to  a  communistic  theory 
that  would  permit  the  guest  to  appropriate  food  unbidden. 
No  such  theory  is  maintained  or  put  into  practice,  hence  the 
rights  of  private  ownership  remain  unchallenged.  It  is 
true  that  many  primitive  societies  assume  an  attitude  toward 
the  necessities  of  life  which  puts  them  into  a  distinct  cate- 
gory of  possessions,  the  theory  being  that  in  circumstances 
of  stress  no  one  shall  go  hungry  so  long  as  any  one  holds 
supplies  of  edibles.  But  that  is  a  point  of  view  intelligible 
from  the  precarious  existence  led  by  many  of  these  peoples, 
and  doubly  intelligible  since  the  European  War  has  famil- 
iarized us  with  the  issuance  of  ration  cards. 

Another  example  may  be  cited  to  illustrate  the  reality  of 
the  difiference  between  ethics  and  law  among  the  same  group 
of  Indians.  A  Crow  warrior  who  had  organized  a  martial 
expedition  and  returned  covered  with  glory  was  in  strict 
theory  sole  master  of  the  booty  captured,  just  as  he  was 
wholly  responsible  for  any  loss  of  men.  A  man  who  exer- 
cised his  legal  prerogatives  to  the  limit  of  actually  retaining 
everything  for  his  own  use  would  certainly  be  flouted  for 
his  greed  and  would  hardly  succeed  in  recruiting  followers 


2o8  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

for  a  second  venture.  To  hoard  the  spoils  in  miserly  fash- 
ion is  so  repugnant  to  Crow  sentiment  that  probably  no 
captain  ever  thus  laid  himself  open  to  universal  reproba- 
tion. But  it  is  quite  clear  from  native  statements  that  if 
he  had  chosen  to  do  so,  his  soldiers  would  have  been  with- 
out redress.  These  men  jeopardized  their  lives  under  the 
captain's  leadership,  yet  there  was  so  little  recognition  of 
communistic  privilege  that  they  were  bound  to  put  up  with 
their  leader's  disposition  of  the  wealth  their  joint  efforts 
had  accumulated. 

The  reality  of  private  ownership  among  ruder  peoples  is 
far  too  important  to  be  established  by  a  pair  of  random  illus- 
trations. Indeed,  the  longer  portion  of  this  chapter  will  be 
devoted  to  this  subject.  For  a  preliminary  orientation  a 
few  additional  examples  will  prove  serviceable. 

An  excellent  missionary  observer  mentions  the  Kai  of 
New  Guinea  as  a  communistic  people.  Yet  on  the  next  page 
he  writes  that  a  thief  caught  in  the  act  on  another  man's 
field  may  be  put  to  death  at  once  without  fear  of  revenge  by 
the  slain  culprit's  kin,  that  men  who  have  stolen  such  valu- 
ables as  boar's  tusks  or  dog's  teeth  must  flee  for  their  lives, 
that  every  fruit-tree  has  its  owner.  A  native  may  indeed 
plant  a  fruit-tree  on  a  stranger's  soil  but  he  is  not  permitted 
to  erect  his  hut  there  without  leave.  Proprietary  rights  to 
game  are  established  by  the  hunter  who  first  sights  it ;  simi- 
larly a  man  who  discovers  a  bird's  nest  is  reckoned  its  right- 
ful owner.  When  a  Kai  desires  to  cut  a  tree  and  is  inter- 
rupted in  his  task,  he  may  establish  title  to  it  by  a  property 
mark  and  no  one  seeing  this  will  touch  it.  Add  to  these 
illustrations  instances  of  intangible  possessions  to  be  de- 
scribed later,  and  it  is  obvious  that  the  Kai  have  well-defined 
notions  of  private  ownership.  Their  alleged  communism 
is  reduced  simply  to  a  sense  not  of  communal  but  of  family 
solidarity  that  prompts  relatives  to  assist  one  another  in 
the  purchase  of  wives  and  to  cooperate  in  labors  transcend- 
ing the  powers  of  a  single  individual. 


PROPERTY  209 

A  still  better  case  for  critical  scrutiny  is  furnished  by  the 
Arctic  populations  precisely  because  many  of  their  usages 
really  smack  of  communism.  In  Greenland  a  large  whale 
is  not  considered  the  exclusive  property  of  the  harpooners 
but  is  shared  by  passive  spectators  though  they  number  a 
hundred.  A  man  was  privileged  to  use  a  trap  not  for  some 
time  set  by  its  owner  and  the  latter  had  no  claim  to  the 
catch.  In  Baffinland  when  food  is  scarce  a  seal's  flesh  and 
blubber  are  distributed  by  the  hunter  among  all  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  settlement.  This  indifference  to  individual 
property  rights  is  also  well  exemplified  by  the  Eskimo  about 
Bering  Strait:  ".  .  .  if  a  man  borrows  from  another  and 
fails  to  return  the  article  he  is  not  held  to  account  for  it. 
This  is  done  under  the  general  feeling  that  if  a  person  has 
enough  property  to  enable  him  to  lend  some  of  it,  he  has 
more  than  he  needs.  The  one  who  makes  the  loan  under 
the  circumstances  does  not  feel  justified  in  asking  a  return 
of  the  article  and  waits  for  it  to  be  given,  back  voluntarily." 

The  conceptions  underlying  such  usages  recur  in  almost 
identical  form  among  those  Asiatic  tribes  whose  mode  of 
life  most  closely  approximates  that  of  the  Eskimo.  The 
ideal  hunter  of  ancient  Koryak  times  "heaps  the  results  of 
the  chase  on  the  shore,  and  bids  the  inhabitants  of  the  set- 
tlement divide  among  themselves,  and  he  takes  for  himself 
only  what  is  left."  With  the  Chukchi  a  man  who  has  killed 
a  walrus  does  not  appropriate  to  himself  the  product  of  his 
labor  but  shares  it  with  all  passive  bystanders. 

But  a  closer  reading  of  the  sources  shows  that  even  in 
these  unusually  communistic  societies  the  individualistic 
motive,  while  submerged,  is  not  wholly  lacking,  and  at  the 
same  time  it  supplies  us  with  an  explanation  of  the  predom- 
inant communism.  From  superstitious  or  other  reasons 
individual  rights  are  in  some  cases  acknowledged  without 
challenge.  When  a  whale  has  drifted  to  the  Chukchi  shore, 
the  meat  is  indeed  shared  by  all  present,  but  the  whalebone 
belongs  wholly  to  the  person,  whether  child  or  adult,  who 


2IO  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

first  sighted  the  whale :  appropriation  by  anyone  else  would 
be  sinful  and  cause  the  death  of  the  transgressor.  Analo- 
gous notions  have  been  recorded  among  the  Central  Eskimo 
and  South  Greenlanders.  West  of  Hudson  Bay  the  hunter 
who  first  strikes  a  walrus  receives  the  tusks  and  one  of  the 
fore-quarters.  The  Koryak  and  Yukaghir  recognize  pri- 
vate ownership  at  least  of  clothing  and  ornaments,  while 
certain  other  possessions  are  neither  personal  nor  communal 
but  bound  up  with  the  household.  A  Chukchi  custom 
brings  us  to  the  core  of  the  matter.  A  man  with  an  extra 
boat  allows  his  neighbors  to  use  it :  "It  is  contrary  to  the 
sense  of  justice  of  the  natives  to  allow  a  good  boat  to  lie 
idle  on  shore,  when  near  by  are  hunters  in  need  of  one." 
Nothing  is  paid  for  the  use  of  such  a  boat  even  in  cases  of 
extraordinary  good  luck.  In  other  words,  Arctic  society 
recognizes  two  axioms,  the  altruistic  sharing  of  food  sup- 
plies and  the  necessity  for  effective  use  of  extant  means  of 
economic  production.  Arctic  communism  thus  centers  in 
purely  economic  considerations.  Apart  from  them  there  is 
room  for  the  assertion  of  individualistic  motives. 

It  follows  from  the  foregoing  that  we  cannot  content  our- 
selves with  a  blunt  alternative :  communism  versus  indi- 
vidualism. A  people  may  be  communistic  as  regards  one 
type  of  goods,  yet  recognize  separate  ownership  with  re- 
spect to  other  forms  of  property.  Further,  the  communistic 
principle  may  hold  not  for  the  entire  political  unit  of  how- 
ever high  or  low  an  order  but  only  within  the  confines  of  a 
much  smaller  or  differently  constituted  class  of  individuals, 
in  which  case  there  will  be  indeed  collectivism  but  not  com- 
munism in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term.  These  points  must 
be  kept  in  mind  when  surveying  successively  the  primitive 
law  of  immovable  and  movable  property,  of  immaterial 
wealth  and  of  inheritance.^ 

Tenure  of  Land 

Primitive  real  estate  law  is  affected  by  a  variety  of  cir- 


PROPERTY  21 1 

cumstances.  It  is  often  correlated  with  the  poHtical  condi- 
tion of  a  people  and  the  conception  of  chieftaincy  in  vogue 
among  them.  The  economic  status  is  naturally  of  great 
importance,  and  geographical  factors,  impotent  by  them- 
selves, may  in  combination  with  the  culture  of  the  occu- 
pants exert  a  considerable  influence.  It  will  be  convenient 
to  group  tribes  according  to  their  means  of  sustenance  and 
to  examine  briefiy  the  regulation  of  land  ownership  among 
typical  hunters,  stock-raisers,  and  tillers. 

It  is  often  assumed  that  when  peoples  support  themselves 
by  the  chase  there  is  of  necessity  communal  ownership  of 
the  hunting-grounds.  This  proposition,  however,  has  been 
not  only  seriously  shaken  but  invalidated  by  testimony  from 
a  number  of  distinct  regions.  It  holds  for  such  areas  as  the 
North  American  Plains  and  for  such  tribes  as  the  Maidu 
of  California  and  the  Thompson  River  Indians  of  British 
Columbia,  but  not  generally.  The  last  two  instances  are 
instructive  because  virtual  communism  for  members  of  the 
tribe  was  coupled  by  these  peoples,  with  jealous  exclusion 
of  all  aliens.  That  is  to  say,  the  tribe  regarded  a  certain 
area  as  its  hereditary  grounds  open  to  exploitation  by  any 
native,  but  resented  trespasses  by  others.  An  intruder  on 
Thompson  River  territory  forfeited  his  life,  and  the  Maidu 
safeguarded  their  boundary  lines  by  an  elaborate  system  of 
sentry  service.  Tribal  socialism  was  qualified  only  as  re- 
gards certain  improvements  on  the  land;  if  a  Thompson 
River  Indian  or  Maidu  had  constructed  a  deer-fence  or 
fishing-station,  he  was  entitled  to  the  exclusive  use  of  what 
his  individual  efforts  had  produced  and  the  right  descended 
to  his  heirs.  Thanks  to  Professor  Speck's  capital  investi- 
gation of  northeastern  Algonkian  groups,  it  must  now  be 
regarded  as  an  established  fact  that  in  parts  of  North  Amer- 
ica not  only  such  improvements  but  the  hunting-grounds 
themselves  were  the  property  of  individual  families.  "The 
whole  territory  claimed  by  each  tribe  was  subdivided  into 
tracts  owned  from  time  immemorial  by  the  same  families 


212  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

and  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation.  The 
almost  exact  bounds  of  these  territories  were  known  and 
recognized,  and  trespass,  which,  indeed,  was  of  rare  oc- 
currence, was  summarily  punishable."  Among  the  Timis- 
kaming  the  penalty  might  be  death,  though  more  commonly 
witchcraft  was  resorted  to.  As  a  matter  of  courtesy  the 
privilege  of  hunting  over  a  domain  might  be  granted  to 
another  family,  but  it  was  understood  to  be  temporary.  If 
dire  necessity  had  prompted  trespass,  the  poacher  at  least 
felt  obliged  to  transmit  the  pelts  to  the  injured  landowner. 
Only  when  all  the  male  claimants  to  a  tract  had  died  off,  it 
was  parceled  out  among  the  surviving  families.  The  bound- 
aries were  so  definitely  established  that  Dr.  Speck  succeeded 
in  mapping  the  districts  held  by  each  family.  Quotations 
from  older  travelers  are  rightly  interpreted  by  Professor 
Speck  to  indicate  a  rather  widespread  recognition  of  indi- 
vidual hunting  privileges  among  the  Eastern  and  Central 
Canadian  Indians.  Similar  evidence  may  be  adduced  from 
the  coast  of  British  Columbia,  where  each  house  group 
owned  its  salmon  creek  or  portion  thereof,  while  individual 
families  held  their  own  halibut  and  shellfish  banks,  berry- 
ing and  root-digging  patches. 

A  word  of  caution  is  here  required.  When  speaking  of 
individual  families,  our  authorities  often  fail  to  define  their 
precise  meaning.  An  individual  family  in  the  sense  in 
which  I  have  hitherto  used  the  term  would  include  both 
parents,  but  at  least  Professor  Speck  shows  clearly  that  the 
titles  he  is  discussing  are  not  associated  with  the  bilateral 
unit  l)ut  with  its  male  head  and  his  male  descendants.  This 
is  quite  natural,  because  hunting  is  a  masculine  employment 
and  primitive  societies  tend  to  connect  effective  utilization 
with  ownershi]),  which  in  this  case  automatically  excludes 
women.  Another  question  arises  as  to  the  possibly  joint 
ownership  of  a  tract  by  several  brothers.  To  what  extent 
did  such  sharing  of  ])ro])rietary  rights  conflict  with  individ- 
ual ownershij)?     While  our  data  are  not  altogether  con- 


PROPERTY  213 

elusive  on  this  point,  so  much  appears  clearly :  territorial 
rights  were  at  most  vested  in  a  body  of  close  blood-kindred 
through  the  father,  never  in  a  more  inclusive  body  of  real 
or  putative  kin,  never  in  a  larger  political  group.  Com- 
munal ownership  in  any  legitimate  sense  of  the  term  is  thus 
excluded.  The  only  point  that  remains  doubtful  is  whether 
the  hereditary  land  belonged  to  one  man  individually  or 
was  shared  with  his  sons  or  his  brothers.  My  personal  in- 
terpretation of  Professor  Speck's  data  is  that  both  conditions 
arose  at  different  times,  that  joint  ownership  was  simply 
due  to  joint  inheritance  from  the  father,  but  that  there  was 
at  least  a  tendency  to  adjust  matters  on  a  purely  individ- 
ualistic basis  by  occasionally  assigning  to  each  son  a  special 
domain. 

The  attitude  of  the  Australian  aborigines  toward  their 
land  is  extremely  interesting.  A  local  group,  not  neces- 
sarily the  whole  tribe  but  possibly  the  localized  male  por- 
tion of  the  father-sib,  as  among  the  Kariera,  occupied  a 
certain  tract  and  was  indissolubly  connected  with  it.  Wars 
occurred  but  the  notion  of  expropriating  the  vanquished 
never  even  dawned  upon  the  mind  of  the  conquerors.  It  is 
not  surprising,  then,  to  learn  that  naturalization  in  some 
other  group  was  likewise  inconceivable.  "Just  as  the  coun- 
try belonged  to  him  (the  Kariera),  so  he  belonged  to  it." 
Trespass  was  extremely  rare  and  the  white  settlers  in  West 
Australia  found  it  difficult  to  make  black  shepherds  herd 
sheep  anywhere  but  on  their  ancestral  territories.  Infor- 
mation on  some  of  the  tribes  suggests  that  the  intensity  of 
this  attachment  to  a  particular  tract  of  country  may  be 
due  to  mystical  reasons,  more  especially,  to  the  localization 
of  the  individual's  totemic  ancestors ;  removal  to  another 
region  would  destroy  contact  with  these  mythical  beings. 
Apart  from  the  association  of  definite  groups  with  special 
localities,  there  are  important  regional  differences.  The 
Kariera  exploited  each  tract  of  land  in  common,  so  that 
any  member  of  a  father-sib  might  at  any  time  hunt  over  the 


214  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

common  territory  or  use  any  of  its  products  without  limi- 
tation by  special  proprietary  claims.  Not  so  in  Queensland, 
where  individual  families,  in  Dr.  Speck's  sense,  hold  the 
right  of  gathering  roots  or  seeds  and  of  hunting  in  particu- 
lar spots.  Poaching  is  rare,  though  not  regarded  as  a  seri- 
ous ofifence  if  committed  by  a  fellow-tribesman.  Generally, 
the  prerogatives  mentioned  descend  to  brothers  and  sons 
but  in  one  district  patches  of  edible  plants  are  apportioned 
among  the  women  and  inherited  by  their  daughters. 

Finally,  the  Vedda  of  Ceylon  may  be  cited  as  a  hunting 
people  with  a  remarkably  keen  sense  of  ownership,  which 
attracted  the  notice  of  the  white  observers  as  early  as  the 
seventeenth  century.  Each  group,  like  the  Maidu,  meticu- 
lously guarded  its  boundaries  by  means  of  archers,  and 
trespassing  led  to  serious  bloodshed.  But  unlike  the  Maidu 
the  Vedda  also  recognized  holdings  of  lesser  scope,  so  that 
Dr.  Seligmann  was  able  to  map  the  territories  of  distinct 
Henebedda  families.  A  man  would  not  hunt  even  on  his 
brother's  land  without  permission;  and  if  game  ran  into 
an  alien  region  the  owner  of  the  soil  was  entitled  to  a  por- 
tion of  its  flesh.  The  conditions  of  transferring  land  give 
us  an  insight  into  the  true  nature  of  Vedda  ownership. 
Such  transfers  of  hills  or  pools  were  normally  made  only 
to  children  and  sons-in-law,  but  not  without  the  consent  of 
every  adult  male  member  of  the  family.  Whether  this 
means  merely  every  adult  son  or  also  includes  the  brothers 
whose  birthright  to  hunt  on  the  owner's  land  is  denied,  does 
not  appear.  At  all  events,  there  was  a  non-communal, 
though  collective,  interest  in  real  estate  on  the  part  of  close 
blood-kindred.  To  s}Tnbolize  and  ratify  conveyance  the 
donor  gave  to  the  new  owner  a  stone  or  two,  to  which  one 
of  his  teeth  might  be  added.  Usually  the  boundary  of  an 
estate  was  defined  by  natural  features,  otherwise  a  mark 
representing  a  man  with  drawn  bow  was  cut  upon  tree 
trunks  along  the  line  of  demarcation. 

We  thus  find  incontestable  evidence  that  hunting  tribes 


PROPERTY  215 

not  infrequently  recognize  non-communal,  inheritable  claims 
to  particular  portions  of  the  tribal  territory. 

Among  pastoral  peoples,  there  is  usually  a  highly  de- 
veloped sense  of  private  ownership  as  regards  their  live- 
stock but  in  the  matter  of  land,  which  alone  concerns  us 
at  present,  there  is  frequently  complete  or  nearly  complete 
communism.  A  Masai  shares  pasturage  with  all  the  other 
inhabitants  of  his  district  and  when  the  grass  is  exhausted 
there  is  a  general  exodus.  In  this  region  the  steppe  is  ad- 
mirably adapted  for  grazing  so  that  the  herders  have  an 
abundance  of  territor}^  at  their  command.  Among  the  Toda 
likewise  the  local  group,  which  here  coincides  with  the  sib, 
owns  the  pasture  land  collectively.  The  Hottentot  prac- 
tised tribal  communism  with  regard  to  grazing  land,  but 
formerly  intertribal  warfare  was  often  waged  for  the  pos- 
session of  suitable  grounds.  Nevertheless  one  form  of  im- 
movable property  was  associated  with  individual  families, — 
the  bushes  from  which  the  people  derive  the  nara  gourd. 
Trespassing  on  nara  patches  led  to  complaints  before  the 
headman  if  fellows-tribesmen  were  at  fault,  while  poaching 
strangers  were  mercilessly  shot  down. 

Far  more  complicated  arrangements  obtain  among  the 
Kirgiz,  who  own  immense  herds  of  sheep,  goats,  cattle,  and 
horses.  Camels  are  raised  only  on  a  small  scale  and  in  pas- 
turing them  the  communal  principle  is  generally  observed. 
But  the  natural  requirements  of  the  other  species  under  the 
existing  geographical  conditions  necessitate  a  careful  par- 
tition of  available  territory.  In  the  summer  the  herds  need 
well-irrigated  plains  not  infested  by  an  excess  of  insect 
pests ;  the  winter  resort  must  afford  shelter  against  the 
rigors  of  the  weather,  an  abundance  of  water  and  w^ood,  and 
pastures  free  from  heavy  snowfalls.  Since  the  prerequisites 
for  favorable  winter  quarters  are  far  less  readily  secured, 
the  earlier  history  of  the  Kirgiz  hordes  consisted  largely  in 
squabbles  over  the  best  winter  territories.  These  bicker- 
ings have  long  since  ceased,  and  in  the  sixties  of  the  last 


2i6  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

century  each  family  was  found  in  possession  of  an  heredi- 
tary winter  domain.  Since  the  necessity  for  land  varies 
with  the  size  of  one's  herds,  this  system  is  inevitably  con- 
nected with  a  transfer  of  territory  in  accordance  with  exi- 
gency. A  breeder  whose  stock  multiplies  must  purchase 
additional  pasturage;  if  his  herds  diminish  his  land  becomes 
partly  useless  and  is  to  that  extent  sold.  The  winter  quar- 
ters are  usually  marked  off  by  natural  boundaries,  such  as 
streams,  hills  or  lakes ;  failing  these,  their  confines  are  in- 
dicated by  posts  or  rocks.  The  limits  of  each  preserve  are 
generally  known,  and  every  individual  is  assisted  by  his 
sib  in  warding  off  trespasses.  In  marked  contrast  to  this 
apportionment  of  winter  domains  is  Kirgiz  practice  relat- 
ing to  the  summer  pasturage,  which  is  not  owned  privately 
at  all  but  shared  by  the  whole  community  (aul).  Here  is 
once  more  a  striking  illustration  of  the  futility  of  tossing 
about  convenient  but  meaningless  catchwords.  The  Kirgiz 
are  neither  communists  nor  individualists  in  an  absolute 
sense  as  regards  the  ownership  of  land :  they  are  the  former 
in  one  season  of  the  year,  the  latter  in  another.^ 

Regarding  the  real  estate  law  of  tribes  depending  on 
tillage  our  information  is  often  both  scanty  and,  what  is 
worse,  vitiated  by  time-honored  preconceptions.  This  ap- 
plies with  special  force  to  North  America,  where  our  ig- 
norance is  deplorable.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  extinction 
of  primitive  usage  over  large  portions  of  the  continent  but 
far  more  to  the  l^fuddling  agency  of  the  sib  dogma.  Any 
statement  in  the  literature  mentioning  the  sib  as  the  pro- 
prietary unit  should  be  subjected  to  the  closest  scrutiny,  for 
this  is  frequently  not  an  observed  fact  but  an  unjustifiable 
inference  from  observed  facts.  Thus  the  retention  of  prop- 
erty within  the  sib  must  not  be  confounded  with  ownership 
by  the  sib.  When  a  Ilopi  woman  dies,  her  house  is  inher- 
ited by  her  daughters,  members  of  her  sib  by  matrilineal 
descent ;  it  does  not  become,  as  it  never  has  been,  the  prop- 
erty of  the  sib.     First  of  all,  In    I  lopi  law  the  men  are  ex- 


PROPERTY  217 

eluded  from  house  ownership  so  that  roughly  half  of  the 
sib  cannot  possibly  figure  as  owners.  Secondly,  there  is  no 
collective  ownership  of  a  house  by  all  the  women  of  the  sib 
but  at  best  by  all  the  actual  female  descendants  through 
females  of  the  deceased.  The  law  of  inheritance  may,  as  I 
have  myself  argued,  lead  to  the  notion  of  the  sib,  but  that 
is  very  different  from  assuming  that  the  fully  developed  sib 
including  not  only  remote  but  also  merely  putative  kin  holds 
property  as  a  corporate  body. 

For  the  Zuni  there  is  uncontroverted  evidence  that  the 
land  was  never  held  by  the  sib.  Communal  property  exists 
inasmuch  as  the  unused  soil,  the  streets  and  wells  are  free 
to  all  the  Zuni ;  but  the  fields,  corrals,  houses  and  chattels 
belonged  to  individuals  or  household  groups  of  blood  kin- 
dred. This  view  of  Kroeber's  only  corroborates  Mrs.  Stev- 
enson's earlier  statement :  "The  fields  are  not  owned  by 
clans  [sibs],  and  the  Zunis  claim  that  they  never  were  so 
owned."  Title  is  acquired  by  simple  appropriation  and 
tillage,  and  it  is  important  to  note  that  alienation  may  occur. 
The  little  gardens  tended  exclusively  by  women  are  trans- 
mitted to  their  daughters;  this  evidently  has  nothing  to  do 
with  sib  ownership  but  merely  with  the  same  principle  that 
makes  hunting  territories  descend  from  father  to  son. 

Where  ancient  conditions  have  suffered  to  a  greater  ex- 
tent from  the  influences  of  civilization  positive  statements 
cannot  be  safely  made.  Thus  Dr.  Speck  leaves  us  in  doubt 
whether  particular  portions  of  the  arable  Yuchi  territory 
belonged  to  individuals  or  to  sibs.  Nevertheless,  when  he 
speaks  of  occupation  and  utilization  establishing  ownership 
and  of  corner  stones  with  optional  designs  serving  as  prop- 
erty marks,  the  presumption  is  in  favor  of  private  proprie- 
torship. 

For  by  far  the  most  precise  data  on  horticultural  holdings 
in  America  north  of  Mexico  we  are  indebted  to  Dr.  G.  L. 
Wilson's  researches  among  the  Hidatsa.  His  data  have 
already  been  used  to  show  how  the  notion  of  a  mother-sib 


2i8  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

might  naturally  develop  from  the  assignment  of  all  horti- 
cultural lalx)rs  and  holdings  to  the  women.  There  is  no 
question  that  the  sisters  and  their  descendants  who  jointly 
cultivated  a  plot  also  shared  the  produce,  and  in  this  sense 
collective  proprietorship  may  be  ascribed  to  the  Hidatsa. 
But  Wilson's  informants  leave  no  doubt  that  it  was  invari- 
ably the  actual  blood  kindred  through  the  mother  not  the 
larger  mother-sib  that  cultivated  and  owned  the  plot.  In 
the  rich  bottom  lands  of  the  Missouri  the  women  of  a 
family,  i.e.,  the  grandmother,  her  daughters  and  daughters' 
daughters,  made  a  clearing,  which  was  subsequently 
bounded  with  wooden  stakes,  stones  or  little  mounds.  Dif- 
ficulties sometimes  arose  through  conflicting  claims,  but 
there  was  a  strong  sentiment  against  quarreling  about  land 
and  usually  an  amicable  settlement  was  arrived  at  by  offer- 
ing compensation  for  a  ceded  strip.  There  was,  however, 
probably  no  sale  of  entire  gardens.  When  a  woman  died, 
her  relatives  sometimes  failed  to  appropriate  her  plot.  In 
that  case  some  other  woman  might  use  it  but  not  before 
asking  permission  of  the  deceased  owner's  family. 

With  regard  to  ancient  Mexico  Bandelier  has  lavished  all 
the  resources  of  his  vast  erudition  on  an  attempt  to  inter- 
pret the  historical  sources  in  a  sense  favorable  to  Morgan's 
sib  scheme.  Rejecting  completely  the  notion  of  a  Mexican 
feudal  monarchy  that  had  been  popularized  by  early  Spanish 
annalists,  he  conceived  central  Mexico  as  a  confederacy  of 
independent  tribes  which  had  indeed  subjugated  other  popu- 
lations but  never  to  a  condition  of  vassalage.  That  is  to 
say,  instead  of  acquiring  dominion  over  the  soil  of  the 
vanquished,  the  conquerors  contented  themselves  with  ex- 
acting tribute,  certain  plots  being  segregated  for  crops  to 
be  surrendered  to  them.  As  for  the  hereditary  territory  of 
the  dominant  tril>es,  or  indeed  of  any  other  native  peoples, 
the  father-sib  (for  Bandelier  identified  the  aboriginal  term 
calpidli  as  a  designation  for  the  sib)  fonned  the  proprietary 
unit  quite  independently  of  other  tribal  subdivisions.    Alien- 


PROPERTY  219 

ation  was  impossible.  If  a  sib  l^ecame  extinct,  its  lands 
were  added  to  those  of  another  with  inadequate  territory  or 
were  distributed  among  the  remaining  sibs.  The  sib  tract 
was  parceled  out  among  male  members,  who  were  obliged 
to  cultivate  their  allotment  or  at  least  to  provide  substi- 
tutes if  other  duties  interfered  with  horticultural  labors. 
Otherwise  their  plots  reverted  to  the  sib  at  the  close  of  a 
two-year  period  and  were  re-allotted.  The  function  of 
supervising  the  distribution  of  land  belonged  to  the  chief 
of  the  sib,  assisted  by  a  council  of  its  elders.  Bandelier 
strongly  insists  that  even  the  tribal  chiefs  had  no  terri- 
torial domains  in  a  feudal  sense  but  merely  held  certain 
plots  as  sib  members,  while  certain  other  plots  were  re- 
served for  their  official  requirements  without  any  notion  of 
ownership  by  the  chiefs.  In  short,  Bandelier's  view  is  that 
the  abstract  notion  of  ownership  by  either  chief  or  nation, 
was  foreign  to  the  Mexican  natives ;  that  the  sib  had  an 
inalienable  possessory  right  in  its  territory;  while  the  indi- 
vidual families  merely  enjoyed  the  hereditary  usufruct  of 
plots  within  the  sib  area. 

Unfortunately  none  of  Bandelier's  successors  has  re- 
examined the  Spanish  chronicles  with  equal  thoroughness 
and  accordingly  the  discussion  cannot  be  considered  closed. 
Bandelier's  contention  that  feudal  overlords  were  unknown 
in  Mexico  will  probably  stand,  and  the  collective  tenancy  of 
land  by  the  calpulli  with  mere  usufruct  by  individual  fam- 
ilies is  accepted  by  the  latest  writer  on  the  subject.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  is  serious  doubt  whether  the  calpulli  were 
father-sibs ;  Dr.  Spinden  interprets  them  rather  as  "military 
organizations  taking  into  their  membership  all  the  men  of 
the  tribe."  A  complete  reinvestigation  of  all  the  older 
sources  without  theoretical  prepossession  is  thus  indispen- 
sable for  a  satisfactory  understanding  of  ancient  Mexican 
land  tenure. 

Precise  statements  as  to  South  American  conditions  are 
not  abundant.     In   a  countr)^  practising  a   form   of  state 


220  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

socialism  like  ancient  Peru  individual  land  ownership  would 
hardly  be  expected.  By  a  tripartite  division  lands  were  set 
aside  for  priestly  and  governmental  uses,  the  residue  re- 
maining for  the  support  of  the  population  at  large.  Tracts 
were  possessed  by  the  father-sib  (ayllu),  and  within  each 
of  them  the  several  families  received  an  adequate  allotment 
for  utilization.  For  the  Chibcha  we  have  an  over-summary 
declaration  that  real  estate  was  individually  owned :  "La 
propicdad  indhndual  de  las  tierras  cxistia  entre  los  Chihchas, 
y  los  hienes  raices  se  transmitian  par  herencia  a  las  mujeres 
y  a  los  hijos  del  difunto."  Somewhat  greater  detail  would 
certainly  be  welcome.  From  the  ruder  tribes,  both  indi- 
vidual and  communal  ownership  are  reported.  In  the  north- 
west Amazons  the  tribal  plantations  belong  to  the  chief, 
apparently  not  because  he  exercises  any  abstract  dominion 
over  the  soil  but  from  the  practical  reason  that  since  all  the 
unattached  females  in  the  communal  dwelling  belong  to 
him  he  is  best  able  to  cultivate  the  fields.  This  in  no  way 
prevents  individual  Indians  who  have  private  lodgings  in 
the  bush  from  having  their  special  patches  of  manioc. 
Tribal  boundaries  are  often  carefully  maintained.  Within 
them  the  Bakairi  plant  communally,  though  Schmidt  ob- 
served that  on  the  Kulisehu  communal  labor  created  a 
usufructuary  and  possessory  right  for  an  individual  by 
making  a  clearing  for  him. 

Thus,  so  far  as  the  scanty  data  permit  any  generalization, 
it  appears  that  the  New  World  aborigines  followed  a  vari- 
ety of  systems  as  to  land  tenure.  Communal  ownership  cer- 
tainly occurs,  especially  in  the  south,  non-communal  though 
collective  sib  ownership  has  at  least  been  vigorously  as- 
serted, while  ownership  by  close  blood-kin  through  the 
mother  occurs  among  the  Hidatsa  and  individual  ownership 
in  Zuni.^ 

With  relatively  few  exceptions  American  society  was 
organized  on  a  democratic  basis.  As  we  pass  to  the  remain- 
ing continents,  the  effect  of  other  polities  on  land  owner- 


PROPERTY  221 

ship  often  appears  with  great  clearness,  especially  where 
as  in  Africa  and  Oceania  greater  and  lesser  degrees  of 
monarchical  power  are  found  side  by  side. 

As  a  result  of  their  political  conceptions  the  African 
aborigines  frecjuently  consider  the  land  the  king's  or  chief's 
property.  It  follows  that  purchase  of  land  becomes  impos- 
sible. Nevertheless  apart  from  restraint  on  alienation  the 
man  to  whom  territory  has  been  allotted  may  become  its 
absolute  master.  The  method  pursued  by  the  Thonga  may 
be  used  for  illustration.  A  headman,  having  obtained  from 
the  king  a  considerable  tract  of  land,  apportions  it  among 
his  fellow-villagers,  who  begin  to  till  the  most  fertile  sec- 
tions of  their  allotments.  When  a  newcomer  wishes  to  set- 
tle on  the  territory,  he  is  taken  to  an  uncultivated  plot,  of 
which  the  boundaries  are  fixed  by  natural  landmarks,  such 
as  trees,  lakes  or  ant-hills.  Henceforth  he  is  rightful  occu- 
pant of  the  premises,  but  if  he  leaves  either  because  of 
dissatisfaction  with  the  soil  or  some  personal  difficulty  with 
his  neighbors,  the  property  cannot  be  sold,  but  escheats  to 
the  grantor.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  normal  course  of 
events  possessory  rights  descend  to  the  grantee's  heirs.  The 
headman's  title  would  similarly  be  invalidated  if  he  left  the 
country,  irrespective  of  the  period  of  his  occupancy.  But 
so  long  as  the  tenant  remains  in  possession,  his  control  is 
undisputed  and  he  may  in  turn  parcel  out  his  territory 
among  his  kinsmen.  Strangel}^  enough,  the  grantor  sur- 
renders his  interest  to  such  an  extent  that  he  must  obtain 
the  tenant's  leave  for  so  much  as  picking  up  rotting  fruit 
from  the  assigned  tract.  In  this  and  other  details  there  is 
naturally  local  variation  among  the  Bantu,  and  much  doubt- 
less depended  on  the  powers  of  individual  headmen  and 
rulers,  yet  on  the  whole  one  derives  the  impression  that 
tenure  was  relatively  secure.  Thus,  among  some  of  the 
southern  tribes  a  chief  might  indeed  expel  a  commoner  from 
his  estate  and  seize  his  standing  crops  on  behalf  of  another 
chief,  but  it  was  illegal  to  dispossess  the  cultivator  in  favor 


222  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

of  another  commoner.  An  interesting  deviation  from 
Thonga  practice  is  also  noted  for  their  southern  congeners 
in  case  of  abandonment.  This  did  not  void  the  title :  the 
former  occupant  might  recover  the  arable  formerly  used 
by  him,  though  he  had  no  claim  to  the  grounds  broken  up 
and  brought  under  cultivation  by  the  newcomer. 

Among  the  Southern  Bantu,  then,  the  cultivator  remains 
a  tenant,  though  generally  one  in  secure  occupancy  of  his 
land,  effective  use  of  the  soil  by  a  grantee  depriving  the 
grantor  or  any  one  else  of  the  right  to  interfere,  except 
sometimes  for  political  offences.  So  far  as  I  am  able  to  see, 
the  possessory  rights  are  held  individually. 

Among  the  Ewe  of  Togoland  chiefs  are  of  rather  less 
consequence  than  among  the  Zulu  and  their  relatives.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  individual  seems  to  count  for  less  as 
compared  with  the  group  of  his  patrilineal  kindred.  These 
two  conditions  give  a  different  coloring  to  Ewe  real  estate 
law.  Each  tribe  and  each  village  has  its  distinctive  domain 
carefully  demarcated  from  that  of  neighboring  units  of 
like  order  by  boundary  lines  marked  with  a  species  of  shrub 
generally  used  for  this  purpose.  Within  the  village  area 
each  paternal  family  has  its  own  land,  which  is  again  prop- 
erly bounded.  Theoretically  the  title  is  based  on  ancestral 
appropriation  and  prescription.  So  far  as  the  tribal  and 
village  land  is  concerned,  ownership  is  public.  The  subdi- 
visions of  the  village  area  are  owned  by  groups  of  patri- 
lineal blood-kindred  with  the  heads  of  families  acting  as 
administrators.  The  head  of  a  group  is  obliged  to  assist 
other  members  in  times  of  stress,  and  any  kinsman  is  per- 
mitted to  till  a  portion  of  the  hereditary  soil.  A  family  of 
diminishing  numbers  may  cultivate  only  a  relatively  small 
portion  of  the  land  they  own,  nevertheless  their  title  does 
not  lapse  through  non-use.  Other  families  are  permitted 
to  occupy  plots  in  such  cases  without  the  necessity  of  pay- 
ing rent  but  they  are  required  to  observe  local  customs  as  to 
rest-days  and  to  plant  palm-seeds  so  that  the  owner  may 


PROPERTY  223 

some  clay  have  a  palm  grove  on  his  property.  Within  the 
paternal  family  group  there  is  hardly  individual  owner- 
ship :  occupation  of  a  definite  plot  by  one  member  is  neither 
prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  fellow-members  in  the  land 
he  tills  nor  does  it  interfere  with  the  cultivator's  rights  to 
the  hereditary  land  outside  his  plot.  So  far  as  personal 
titles  are  recognized,  they  seem  to  hold  only  for  the  palm- 
trees  planted. 

Since  the  very  existence  of  the  Ewe  rests  on  the  posses- 
sion of  their  fields,  a  sale  of  the  ancestral  property  as  a 
whole  is  out  of  the  question  and  formerly  it  was  deemed 
preferable  in  case  of  debt  to  sell  or  pawn  members  of  the 
family  who  had  contracted  the  obligation.  It  happens,  how- 
ever, that  special  patches  are  sold  with  the  consent  of  the 
administering  head  of  the  group.  In  such  cases,  there  is  a 
strong  likelihood  that  the  fellow-members  will  strain  every 
effort  to  r'etrieve  possession  of  the  hereditary  plot  by  re-pur- 
chase. Otherwise  the  transferred  property  is  transmitted 
to  the  buyer's  heirs  according  to  customar}^  rules  of  inherit- 
ance. Conveyance  is  not  without  its  fonnalities.  The  pur- 
chaser pays  the  price  agreed  upon,  then  the  seller  brings  a 
fixed  amount  of  cowrie  shells  to  be  divided  between  him 
and  the  buyer.  Next  a  string  of  cowries  is  divided  into 
halves  and  torn  in  the  middle,  whereupon  each  party  ties 
his  half  of  the  string  with  the  shells  to  his  stool  or  carrying- 
basket  as  documentary  evidence  of  legal  purchase.  Finally 
both  buyer  and  seller,  accompanied  by  witnesses,  repair  to 
the  transferred  property,  where  three  shots  must  be  dis- 
charged. This  counts  as  a  public  ratification  of  the  sale 
and  is  the  first  point  ascertained  by  judges  in  cases  of  sul> 
sequent  litigation.  If  it  can  be  shown  that  the  customary 
shots  were  fired  on  the  field,  the  title  is  established.  Dissen- 
sions concerning  land  ownership  have  always  been  common 
and  were  formerly  adjudicated  by  the  chief  and  a  commis- 
sion of  two  expert  advisers,  before  whom  each  litigant  was 
obliged  to  recite  the  names  of  all  the  preceding  owners  and 


224  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

to  indicate  the  boundary  lines  of  the  estate  in  dispute.  Fail- 
ure in  either  respect  led  to  an  adverse  decision.  Sometimes 
an  ordeal  was  resorted  to  and  the  disputant  who  first  died 
was  regarded  as  the  wrongful  claimant. 

The  real  estate  law  as  outlined  above  did  not  hold  for  the 
kingdom  of  Dahomi,  where  the  autocratic  ruler  was  in 
theory  absolute  owner  of  all  the  land,  of  which  he  merely 
permitted  or  specially  granted  the  usufruct  to  individual 
cultivators.  Accordingly  it  was  his  prerogative,  though  it 
was  not  normally  exercised,  to  oust  the  possessor  at 
will  and  invest  whom  he  pleased  with  the  rights  of  occu- 
pancy. 

In  the  highly  organized  state  of  Uganda  the  theory  of 
tenure  approaches,  as  in  Dahomi,  that  of  the  feudal  sys- 
tem. The  king  is  owner  of  all  land  and  disposes  of  it  at 
will  with  the  exception  of  sib  burial  grounds  of  long  stand- 
ing, which  are  liable  to  taxation  but  not  to  a  shifting  of 
proprietorship.  The  king  grants  land  to  the  chiefs,  and 
the  chiefs  allot  lesser  tracts  to  the  peasants,  who  in  return 
are  obliged  to  work  for  them  and  render  military  services. 
No  sale  of  land  is  possible  since  that  would  be  an  encroach- 
ment on  the  king's  ownership,  even  the  burial  grounds  re- 
maining inalienable. 

Thus  in  Africa  the  whole  question  of  land  tenure  assumes 
a  distinct  aspect.  It  is  inextricably  bound  up  with  the  nature 
and  extent  of  royal  dominion,  which  sometimes  dwarfs  the 
possessory  rights  of  the  occupant  into  those  of  a  mere 
tenant  at  the  master's  will.  Additional  factors  undoubtedly 
enter,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Ewe,  where  kinship  solidarity 
largely  conflicts  with  separate  ownership  of  the  soil.  Con- 
sidering that  horticultural  work  devolves  so  largely  on  the 
women,  we  might  expect  to  find  women  more  prominently 
associated  with  territorial  rights.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a 
Kikuyu  woman  owns  the  patch  she  cultivates,  and  though 
Baku]>a  soil  is  the  chief's  its  produce  belongs  to  the  female 
planters.    But  such  references  are  rare;  in  Africa  the  chat- 


PROPERTY  225 

tel  conception  of  woman  has  generally  prejudiced  her  pro- 
prietary status/ 

In  Oceania  the  Melanesians,  except  where  influenced  by 
Polynesian  example,  approach  a  democratic  condition ;  the 
Polynesians  everywhere  prized  nobility  of  descent  but  ex- 
cept in  certain  groups  lived  rather  in  a  commonwealth  of 
gentlemen  than  in  an  autocratically  ruled  state ;  in  Hawaii, 
however,  and  part  of  Micronesia  a  large  body  of  the  popu- 
lation groveled  in  the  dust  before  the  patrician  caste.  These 
differences  inevitably  affected  the  law  of  land. 

In  Melanesia  generally  there  is  little  indication  of  feudal 
tenure ;  nay,  Codrington  cites  an  interesting  case  of  land- 
less chiefs.  Even  in  Fiji,  where  under  Polynesian  influence 
chiefs  attained  an  exalted  position,  responsibility  to  the 
ruler  as  an  individual  seems  to  have  arisen  only  through 
special  conditions.  According  to  Mr.  Thomson,  the  chief 
as  tribal  representative  would  assign  plots  to  fugitives  ask- 
ing for  protection,  and  the  tribute  presented  to  him  was  at 
first  divided  up  among  his  people.  But  by  usurpation  of 
prerogatives  not  originally  vested  in  him  he  was  able  to 
make  special  levies  and  even  to  obscure  the  original  form 
of  tenure  to  the  extent  of  figuring  as  an  overlord  to  whom 
the  tenants  were  personally  subject. 

Speaking  again  in  a  general  way,  the  waste  lands  were 
tribal  property  in  the  sense  that  any  tribesman  was  per- 
mitted to  possess,  clear  and  cultivate  an  unappropriated 
part  of  the  area.  An  important  distinction  is  drawn  in  the 
Banks  Islands  and  neighboring  sections  of  Melanesia  be- 
tween the  ancient  hereditary  land  and  that  recently  re- 
claimed. The  former  belonged  to  the  mother-sibs  or  at 
least  to  the  constituent  maternal  families,  so  that  when  a 
man  died  his  gardens  became  the  possession  of  his  sister's 
sons,  all  of  whom  jointly  owned  the  property  and  each  of 
whom  chose  a  plot  within  the  inherited  estate.  On  the 
other  hand,  plots  recently  brought  under  cultivation  by  a 
man's  individual  labor  were  his  and  descended  to  his  sons, 


226  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

who  did  not  hold  in  common,  each  becoming  owner  of 
a  distinct  part  of  the  field. 

A  very  interesting  detail  of  Oceanian  real  estate  law  is 
the  proprietorship  of  fruit  trees  apart  from  the  soil  on 
which  they  grow,  a  circumstance  that  has  led  to  much  con- 
fusion on  the  part  of  colonial  administrators.  In  Fiji,  in 
the  Banks  Islands,  and  part  of  New  Guinea  the  planter  has 
an  indefeasible  claim  on  cocoanuts  or  other  valuable  trees 
even  if  he  has  not  obtained  leave  to  plant  them  on  another 
man's  soil,  though  permission  is  usually  asked  and  granted. 
European  settlers  are  accordingly  obliged  to  indemnify  not 
only  the  landowner  but  every  native  who  has  fruit  trees 
standing  on  the  property  they  are  acquiring. 

Alienation  of  land  was  decidedly  uncommon.  In  the 
Fijian  state  of  Rewa  there  were  nine  methods  of  transfer 
but  in  six  of  them  there  was  definite  provision  for  redemp- 
tion by  a  special  ceremony,  though  not  for  a  spontaneous 
reversion  of  the  property  to  the  line  of  original  owners. 
Thus,  an  estate  might  be  given  by  the  bride's  family  as  her 
dowry  to  be  used  by  her  husband  and  her  male  children. 
Failing  male  issue,  the  donors  could  redeem  it  with  a  suit- 
able present,  but  until  this  formality  was  gone  through  the 
husband  and  his  representatives  could  till  or  lease  the  land, 
though  without  rights  of  transfer.  There  was  no  specified 
statute  of  limitations,  but  if  the  donors'  kin  allowed  the 
matter  to  lapse  for  three  or  four  generations  the  descend- 
ants of  the  grantee  would  be  upheld  by  public  sentiment  in 
rejecting  a  subsequent  offer  of  redemption  gifts. 

Fijian  land  tenure  varied  enormously  in  different  locali- 
ties and  the  statements  of  our  authority,  possibly  reflecting 
tribal  differences,  are  not  wholly  consistent  as  to  the  mat- 
ter of  communism.  It  is,  however,  clear  that  at  least  in 
certain  regions  individual  ownership  was  recognized.  This 
was  noticeably  the  case  in  Rewa,  where  every  plot  had  to 
be  reclaimed  from  the  river  or  sea  by  individual  effort, 
which  established  personal  proprietary  rights.     Indeed,  it 


PROPERTY  227 

would  seem  that  the  so-called  communism  of  Fiji  dwindles 
into  the  dominance  of  moral  over  legal  conceptions :  the 
land  cultivated  by  a  man  and  the  trees  he  planted  were  his 
by  legal  right  but  the  ethical  claims  of  his  kindred  in  prac- 
tice went  far  to  level  the  benefits  accruing  to  the  holder  of 
an  estate  with  those  derived  by  his  kin. 

Probal)ly,  there  is  no  part  of  Oceania  in  which  individual 
property  rights  as  conceived  by  us  are  better  developed  than 
in  the  Torres  Straits  Islands.  Every  rock  and  waterhole 
had  its  owner,  the  only  piece  of  common  land  being  the 
village  street.  Gardens  were  leased,  the  first  fruits  con- 
stituting a  sort  of  rent  pa}'Tnent.  Contrary  to  widespread 
primitive  usage,  alienation  and  testamentary  disposition 
were  allowable.  An  irate  father  might  disinherit  his  chil- 
dren or  apportion  his  property  among  them  at  will,  which 
proves  that  there  was  no  inalienable  birthright  to  land  nor 
joint  ownership  even  by  blood-kindred. 

In  sharp  contrast  to  the  democratic  polity  of  Melanesia 
stands  the  caste  system  of  the  Marshall  Islands.  Here  the 
upper  and  lower  nobility  held  undisputed  sway,  looking 
down  with  supreme  scorn  upon  their  plebeian  serfs  and  only 
granting  to  a  middle-class  of  'professional  men'  a  sort  of 
feudal  tenure  of  lands  in  return  for  distinguished  services. 
It  is  thus  merely  the  limited  patrician  caste  that  exercises 
proprietorship  of  the  soil  and  its  control  is  an  absolute  one. 
A  nobleman's  title  is  based  on  inheritance  or  conquest;  he 
may  give  away  or  sell  his  territory  at  will  though  the  lesser 
chiefs  yield  tribute  to  those  of  higher  rank.  The  estates 
are  cultivated  by  serfs  who  are  completely  subject  to  their 
master's  caprice.  Some  of  these  plebeian  families  are 
allowed  to  remain  in  the  same  spot  for  generations  but  such 
association  establishes  no  claim  to  safe  tenure.  The  serfs 
toil  for  their  master,  who  is  wholly  supported  by  them  and 
in  addition  exacts  an  annual  tribute. 

In  New  Zealand,  on  the  other  hand,  a  general  equality  of 
political  status  proved  consistent  with  high  veneration  for 


228  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

noble  lineage.  The  mass  of  the  population  may  be  described 
as  landed  gentry,  whose  position  in  their  tribe  could  never 
descend  to  the  level  of  degradation  characteristic  of  the 
Micronesian  serfs.  The  precise  prerogatives  as  to  land 
accorded  to  chiefs  and  reserved  to  individual  tribesmen  are 
not  clear.  Individual  and  collective  rights,  too,  coexisted 
in  a  manner  at  times  puzzling.  Generally  it  seems  that  com- 
munal claims  related  to  the  tribal  area  not  yet  definitely 
occupied ;  but  as  soon  as  a  man  marked  as  his  property  a 
tree  which  he  designed  for  a  canoe  his  title  would  not  be 
disputed.  Unlike  the  Australians,  the  Maori  put  into  prac- 
tice the  principle  that  the  territory  of  the  vanquished  be- 
longs to  the  victor ;  it  was  in  fact  regarded  as  an  indemnity 
for  the  lives  lost  by  the  conquering  host.  Whether  tenure 
conformed  to  the  feudal  pattern  remains  a  question.  The 
esteem  in  which  chiefs  were  held,  and  indeed  the  specific 
statement  that  unappropriated  tracts  were  parceled  out  by 
them  as  they  saw  fit,  would  indicate  that  conquered  land 
too  would  be  divided  up  according  to  this  system.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  are  informed  that  in  settling  land  secured 
in  warfare  any  one  might  acquire  proprietary  privileges  by 
active  possession  and  would  come  to  own  as  much  territory 
as  he  could  travel  round  before  meeting  a  rival  prospector. 
The  setting  up  of  his  spear  would  then  suffice  as  an  emblem 
of  occupancy.  It  is  of  course  possible  that  these  prospect- 
ing tours  were  among  the  prerogatives  of  higher  rank. 

Title  was  allowed  on  a  variety  of  contentions  in  addition 
to  those  of  conquest  and  inheritance.  For  example,  claims 
could  be  advanced  on  the  ground  that  the  litigant's  ancestors 
had  been  buried  on  the  disputed  property,  that  his  umbilical 
cord  had  been  cut  on  it,  that  he  had  been  wounded  or  cursed 
there,  and  so  forth.  Thus  purely  religious  or  even  fanciful 
notions  obtruded  themselves  into  tHe  real  estate  law  of  this 
complex  culture.  Though  the  Maori  were  predominantly 
tillers  of  the  soil,  land  represented  a  variety  of  economic 
values,  and  accordingly  specific  privileges  were  owned  by 


PROPERTY  229 

individuals  or  families.  One  might  gather  shellfish  here 
or  berries  there,  another  had  the  exclusive  right  of  hunting 
birds  in  certain  localities.  It  is  especially  interesting  to 
note  the  occurrence  of  multiple  seisin ;  sometimes  one  fam- 
ily had  the  right  of  digging  fern-roots  in  a  certain  place, 
while  another  hunted  rats  in  the  same  area. 

In  Samoa  political  conditions  roughly  resembled  those 
of  New  Zealand.  The  information  on  land  tenure,  though 
meager,  presents  the  points  at  issue  with  greater  clarity. 
Each  district  guarded  its  boundaries  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  neighboring  settlers.  Within  the  district  the  in- 
dividual families,  each  represented  by  its  head,  owned  the 
estates  in  severalty.  The  headmen,  in  spite  of  their  honor- 
able position,  could  not  alienate  the  land  without  consulting 
their  kinsmen,  who  would  otherwise  depose  an  arbitrary 
administrator  of  what  was  evidently  regarded  as  a  family 
estate. 

Joint  ownership  by  the  family  is  also  highly  character- 
istic of  the  real  estate  law  of  the  Ifugao  of  northern  Luzon, 
who  may  serve  as  a  final  illustration  of  land  tenure  among 
ruder  peoples.  To  them,  if  to  any  people,  may  be  applied 
Sir  Henry  Maine's  notion  that  primitive  individuality  is 
swallowed  up  in  the  family, — the  family  in  this  case  appar- 
ently including  kinsfolk  from  both  the  father's  and  the 
mother's  side.  Rice  fields  and  in  some  measure  forest  lands 
are  here  held  rather  by  trustees  than  by  absolute  owners. 
"Present  holders,"  says  Mr.  Barton,  "possess  only  a  tran- 
sient and  fleeting  possession,  or  better  occupation,  insignifi- 
cant in  duration  in  comparison  with  the  decades  and  per- 
haps centuries  that  have  usually  elapsed  since  the  field  or 
heirloom  came  into  the  possession  of  the  family."  When 
there  is  one  field  and  a  multiplicity  of  heirs,  the  first-bom 
takes  it  because  apart  from  practical  difficulties  it  is  deemed 
better  to  have  one  powerful  representative  of  the  family 
to  whom  the  rest  of  the  group  may  repair  for  aid  than  to 
divide  the  estate  into  diminutive  holdings  occupied  by  men 


230  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

of  little  consequence  in  the  community.  As  trustee  the 
holder  is  by  no  means  free  to  dispose  of  the  property  at 
will,  but  may  do  so  only  after  proper  consultation  with  his 
kinsmen.  No  transfer  is  ever  attempted  without  urgent 
necessity,  such  as  the  need  for  sacrifices  to  secure  the  recov- 
ery of  some  member  of  the  family  whose  life  is  endan- 
gered by  sickness ;  and  conveyance  is  solemnized  in  a  man- 
ner to  which  there  is  no  parallel  in  the  sale  of  personal 
possessions. 

Two  forms  of  transfer  outside  the  family  occur,  pawning 
and  sale.  If  a  landholder  requires  a  loan,  say,  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  a  funeral,  he  may  give  his  rice  field  as 
security  to  the  creditor,  who  then  plants  and  harvests  the 
field  until  the  amount  is  refunded.  Whenever  the  borrowed 
sum,  usually  equivalent  to  about  half  the  value  of  the  field, 
is  restored,  the  estate  reverts  to  the  pawner,  with  the  quali- 
fication that  the  creditor  remains  in  possession  until  the 
crop  is  harvested.  The  transferee  may  in  tuni  pawn  the 
property,  but  never  for  a  greater  amount  than  that  advanced 
by  himself,  so  that  payment  of  the  debt  will  restore  the 
field  to  the  original  holder  without  undue  friction,  which 
might  otherwise  result.  All  pawning  is  witnessed  by  an 
agent  through  whom  the  loan  is  negotiated ;  his  fee  is  ad- 
vanced by  the  creditor  but  it  must  be  refunded  with  the 
debt. 

Far  greater  solemnity  is  observed  when  a  sale  takes  place. 
The  price  is  divided  into  ten  parts,  each  represented  by  a 
notch  cut  in  a  stick  or  a  knot  in  a  string.  The  first  two 
payments  are  the  heaviest  and  must  be  rendered  within  a 
set  period  while  the  time  of  the  residuary  payments  remains 
unfixed.  Possession  is  yielded  after  the  receipt  of  the 
initial  amount.  The  witnesses  include  the  seller's  remote 
kin  and  the  indispensable  go-betweens  who  have  arranged 
the  whole  transaction  and  are  entitled  to  a  fee.  The  trans- 
fer of  ownership  is  not  possible  without  a  ceremonial  feast, 
and   on  the  other  hand  the  commencement  of  the  eating 


PROPERTY  231 

nullifies  all  oblig'ations  on  the  buyer's  part  to  render  further 
payments,  so  that  he  sometimes  resorts  to  trickery  to  be- 
guile the  seller  into  premature  banqueting. 

If  the  landholder  abandons  a  field  and  it  is  taken  up, 
prepared  and  planted  by  another  man  without  interference 
on  the  part  of  the  hereditary  occupant,  the  latter  forfeits 
all  right  to  the  land  for  a  length  of  time  equal  to  that  of 
his  neglect  to  utilize  it.  At  the  end  of  that  period  the  field 
reverts  to  its  former  possessor,  but  if  he  desires  to  regain  it 
at  an  earlier  date  he  is  obliged  to  repurchase  possession.^ 

A  review  of  the  systems  of  land  tenure  described  in  the 
preceding  pages  establishes  beyond  doubt  the  reality  of  that 
primitive  joint  ownership  which  so  strongly  impressed  Sir 
Henry  Maine.  But  it  is  by  no  means  a  fact  that  the  co- 
proprietors  always  constitute  a  social  unit  of  the  same 
type.  Communal  ownership,  apart  from  the  general  tribal 
area,  we  have  encountered  only  in  that  highly  special  case 
where  a  father-sib  is  localized  and  thus  becomes  coexten- 
sive with  the  commune.  Far  more  frequently  proprietary 
privileges  are  shared  by  corporations  of  another  type, 
groups  of  close  blood-kindred,  unilateral  as  among  the  Ewe 
or  bilateral  as  apparently  among  the  Ifugao.  That  is  to 
say,  there  is  no  communism  in  land  so  far  as  the  territorial 
body  goes  but  only  within  a  strictly  limited  body  of  actual 
kindred.  Further,  joint  ownership,  while  frequent,  is  not 
universal.  We  also  find  individual  property  rights  as  in  the 
Torres  Straits  and  in  Rewa;  nay,  conmiunism  and  indi- 
vidualism sometimes  coexist;  as  in  the  case  of  the  Kirgiz 
pastures.  The  burden  of  the  proof  surely  rests  with  those 
who  believe  in  a  universal  stage  of  communal  ownership 
antecedent  to  individual  tenure  of  land.  Let  them  advance 
evidence  to  show  that  land  was  once  communally  owned  in 
the  Torres  Straits ;  that  the  Algonkians  at  some  definite 
period  failed  to  recognize  the  individual  hunter's  domain; 
that  separate  ownership  was  unknown  to  the  Vedda  of  some 
specified  period. 


232  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Fortunately  it  is  not  necessary  to  assume  altogether  the 
attitude  of  a  passive  skeptic.  Baden-Powell's  researches  in 
India  permit  us  to  take  the  offensive  and  to  show  that  in 
all  probability  this  region  has  witnessed  an  evolution  of 
real  estate  law  diametrically  opposite  to  that  rashly  assumed 
by  speculative  anthropologists.  Baden-Powell  points  out 
that  the  area  in  which  joint  villages  prevail  is  considerably 
less  than  half  of  that  in  which  separate  ownership  of  land 
predominates.  Moreover,  this  latter  condition  occurs  pre- 
cisely among  the  populations  possessing  a  ruder  civiliza- 
tion. The  Kandh  of  Orissa  furnish  a  capital  illustration. 
Here  the  head  of  the  family  alone  owns  the  homestead  and 
the  land  attached  to  it.  The  sons  live  with  him  after  mar- 
riage but  hold  no  property  rights  until  their  father's  death, 
when  the  estate  is  divided  equally  among  them.  There  is 
no  trace  of  common  ownership  nor  of  the  allotment  of 
fractional  shares  of  the  village  area  to  the  several  families. 
Each  family  clears  and  occupies  a  portion  of  the  ample 
waste  according  to  exigency.  Once  occupied  in  this  fashion, 
land  becomes  heritable  property  that  may  be  bought  and 
sold.  Upon  this  type  of  individual  tenure  by  agricultural 
aborigines  there  w^as  superimposed,  in  certain  localities,  the 
principle  of  the  joint-village, — often  in  the  form  of  a  con- 
quering non-agricultural  group  assuming  the  dominion  of 
the  soil  and  degrading  the  native  proprietors  into  mere 
tenants.  In  such  cases  the  landlords  formed  a  brotherhood 
owning  the  village  area  inclusive  of  the  waste  land  as  a 
unit  estate.  Shares  might  be  assigned  either  on  a  per  capita 
basis,  each  household  receiving  a  number  proportionate  to 
its  members ;  or  the  ancestral  shares  were  calculated  ac- 
cording to  the  pedigree  table,  so  that  the  sole  heir  of  one 
of  the  original  assignees  would  hold  a  larger  territory  than, 
say,  one  of  three  heirs.  In  a  strict  sense,  Baden-Powell 
finds,  there  is  never  a  holding  of  the  soil  in  common  by  any 
major  group,  though  there  is  a  sense  of  kinshij)  and  obliga- 
tion to  mutual  assistance ;  beyond  a  certain  limit  of  blood- 


PROPERTY  233 

kinship  the  joint  holding  never  goes.  Equally  important  is 
the  conclusion  that  in  so  far  as  the  joint  condition  obtains, 
it  is  "not  original,  but  consequent  on  a  prior  single  title  of 
the  founder,  grantee,  etc.,  of  the  village;  the  joint  holding 
was  the  result  of  the  joint-succession  (on  ancestral  shares) 
to  that  one  founder." 

Thus  the  intensive  study  of  a  single,  though  vast  area, 
leads  to  an  historical  reconstruction  that  directly  contra- 
venes the  sociological  dogma  of  a  primeval  communistic 
tenure.  This  condition  appears  not  as  a  universal  but  as  a 
highly  specialized  case,  as  a  late  rather  than  an  early  de- 
velopment.*' 

Chattels 

The  primitive  law  as  to  movable  property  is  much  sim- 
pler than  that  of  real  estate  and  may  accordingly  be  treated 
in  more  summary  fashion.  Generally  speaking,  purely  per- 
sonal titles  are  more  clearl}'-  established  than  in  the  case  of 
land.  Communism  with  respect  to  plantations  may  go  hand 
in  hand  with  complete  individualism  in  point  of  chattels. 
This  applies  e.g.,  to  the  Bakairi  where  every  man  and  wo- 
man has  personal  property.  It  is  particularly  noteworthy 
that  the  right  of  women  to  such  possessions  is  not  chal- 
lenged even  where  their  status  is  one  of  definite  inferiority. 
An  Ewe  woman  is  bought  by  her  husband  and  regarded  as 
incapable  of  inheriting  land,  but  she  may  hold  movable 
property,  such  as  goats  and  poultry,  and  the  cotton  grown 
by  her  efforts  is  given  to  her  husband  only  in  return  for 
compensation.  It  is  not  less  remarkable  that  sometimes 
even  the  child's  individual  property  rights  are  regarded  as 
inviolable.  On  a  Paviotso  reservation  in  Nevada  I  once 
offered  to  purchase  a  little  boy's  blanket.  His  parents  not 
only  referred  the  request  to  him  as  the  rightful  owner  but 
were  willing  to  abide  by  the  ridiculously  low  price  he  set, 
which  in  fairness  I  felt  obliged  to  raise.     In  Brazil  Dr. 


234 


PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 


Schmidt  had  a  similar  experience  in  attempting  to  pur- 
chase the  mat  of  ^n  eleven-year-old  boy,  which  his  father 
refused  to  sell  without  the  boy's  consent. 

Often  the  title  *'o  movable  property  rests  on  individual 
effort;  this  is  why  women  so  commonly  own  the  pottery 
they  have  manufactured.  Another  principle  relates  to  what 
might  be  called  effective  utilization.  Each  Yukaghir  owns 
his  clothing,  the  hunter  owns  his  gun,  the  woman  her  sew- 
ing implements.  Nevertheless  this  very  notion  may  lead 
to  a  collective  rather  than  personal  ownership :  the  Yuka- 
ghir consider  boats,  houses  and  nets  as  the  joint  property 
of  the  entire  family.  But  these  widespread  principles  may 
be  completely  overridden  by  the  structure  of  political  so- 
ciety. Where  the  caste  system  attains  the  rigidity  charac- 
teristic of  the  Marshall  Islands,  the  laborer  is  utterly  at 
the  mercy  of  a  chief,  who  may  appropriate  not  only  the 
produce  of  his  horticultural  labor,  but  also  all  his  movables. 
The  organization  of  society  in  this  case  introduces  a  spe- 
cific type  of  property  in  the  form  of  serfs  or  slaves,  whose 
status  will  be  discussed  elsewhere.  On  the  west  coast  of 
Africa  servitude  may  be  merely  temporary,  the  slave  func- 
tioning as  a  pawn  or  security  for  the  payment  of  debts. 

Another  category  of  chattels  is  represented  by  live  stock. 
Among  pastoral  peoples  flocks  and  herds  constitute  the  only 
or  at  least  the  most  conspicuous  form  of  wealth,  the  ready 
means  to  matrimony  and  prestige.  There  is  accordingly  a 
tremendous  accentuation  of  the  sense  of  individual  prop- 
erty rights,  attested  by  the  branding  systems  current  among 
such  tribes  as  the  Chukchi,  the  Kirgiz  and  the  Masai. 
Among  peoples  who  are  predominantly  stock-breeders  in- 
dividual ownership  is  often  vehemently  asserted  even 
against  the  claims  of  family  ties.  A  Masai  elder  will  assign 
some  of  his  cattle  to  each  of  his  wives,  who  must  care  for 
them  in  return  for  usufructuary  possession,  but  they  remain 
the  husband's  property.  Only  when  she  has  a  son  of  ten 
or  twelve  whose  services  are  not  required  for  the  paternal 


PROPERTY  235 

herds,  the  boy  becomes  owner  of  the  cattle  hitherto  en- 
trusted to  his  mother's  care,  but  she  and  her  son  must 
forthwith  leave  the  kraal  and  establish  a  small  one  of  their 
own  at  a  distance  of  several  kilometers  lest  the  father's  and 
the  son's  herds  intermingle  to  the  former's  detriment.  The 
Chukchi  who  has  become  impoverished  by  the  loss  of  his 
herds  may  indeed  look  to  his  brother  or  cousin  for  assist- 
ance that  shall  enable  him  to  resume  reindeer-breeding,  but 
he  has  merely  an  ethical,  no  legal,  claim  against  his  kins- 
men ;  and  an  old  herder  jealously  guards  his  full  property 
rights  against  his  own  sons/ 

In  short,  with  regard  to  chattels  separate  proprietorship 
is  seen  to  predominate. 

Incorporeal  Property 

Contrary  to  what  might  be  supposed,  the  notion  of  pat- 
ents or  copyrights  is  well-developed  in  the  lower  reaches  of 
civilization,  and  its  prominence  among  certain  peoples  re- 
duces the  dogma  of  a  universal  primitive  communism  to  a 
manifest  absurdity.  That  this  fact  has  not  been  adequately 
grasped  by  earlier  writers  is  in  part  due  to  that  rational- 
istic prejudice  which  is  the  bane  of  all  historical  inquiry. 
To  minds  steeped  in  the  spirit  of  an  industrial  era  it  is 
difificult  to  conceive  that  privileges  without  obvious  utili- 
tarian benefits  may  be  highly  prized  and  sometimes  dis- 
tinctly rank  as  wealth. 

Even  in  so  humble  an  environment  as  that  of  the  Anda- 
man Islands  'choses  in  action,'  to  use  our  legal  phraseology, 
are  not  wanting.  This  is  all  the  more  remarkable  because 
with  reference  to  utensils,  such  as  cooking-vessels,  the  abo- 
rigines display  a  large-mi ndedness  actually  approaching 
communism :  "the  rights  of  private  property  are  only  so 
far  recognized  that  no  one  w^ould  without  permission  ap- 
propriate or  remove  to  a  distance  anything  belonging  to  a 
friend  or  neighbor."     But  no  such  latitude  holds  with  re- 


236  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

gard  to  the  songs  composed  for  the  occasion  of  a  tribal 
gathering.  A  song  that  has  been  received  with  applause 
may  be  repeated  by  request  at  lesser  gatherings,  l>ut  irre- 
spective of  its  popularity  no  one  dare  sing  it  except  the 
composer  himself. 

The  Koryak  believe  that  the  course  of  events  may  be 
shaped  by  magic  formulas,  which  serve  to  banish  disease, 
lure  game,  consecrate  charms,  and  exorcise  evil  spirits.  All 
incantations  originated  from  the  Creator.  They  are  now 
held  by  elderly  women,  who  treasure  them  as  trade  secrets ; 
indeed,  there  is  a  belief  that  to  divulge  the  formula  is  to 
destroy  its  efficacy.  For  chanting  a  formula  the  owner 
receives  from  her  client  cakes  of  pressed  tea,  or  several 
packages  of  tobacco,  or  a  reindeer.  "When  a  woman  sells 
an  incantation,  she  must  promise  that  she  gives  it  up  en- 
tirely, and  that  the  buyer  will  become  the  only  possessor  of 
its  mysterious  power." 

On  one  of  the  Eastern  Torres  Straits  Islands  Professor 
Haddon  discovered  distinct  ideas  of  proprietorship  in  local 
legends,  for  an  informant  never  liked  to  tell  a  story  con- 
nected with  another  locality.  This  type  of  experience  has 
been  shared  by  many  investigators  of  the  North  American 
Indians.  Additional  examples  of  copyright  are  furnished 
by  the  Kai.  Among  them,  as  in  the  Andamans,  a  poet  is 
the  absolute  owner  of  his  composition.  No  one  else  may 
sing  it  without  his  consent,  and  usually  he  exacts  a  fee  for 
granting  it.  Similarly,  there  is  ownership  of  magical  for- 
mulas, the  instructor  being  entitled  to  compensation.  Cer- 
tain carvings,  too,  must  not  be  copied  without  special  leave. 
Even  personal  names  are  in  a  sense  a  form  of  patented 
property,  so  that  a  young  man  adopting  a  name  already 
held  presents  his  elder  namesake  with  a  gift  by  way  of 
conciliation. 

Among  the  natives  of  British  Columbia  the  Nootka  are 
conspicuous  for  the  nunil)er  and  variety  of  their  intangible 
goods.     I'Yom  data  kindly  supplied  by  Dr.  Sapir  it  appears 


PROPERTY  5237 

that  the  patent  rights  of  these  people  are  divisible  into  two 
categories,  those  called  fopati  which  are  necessarily  trans- 
mitted from  father  to  eldest  son  and  those  which  a  father 
normally  surrenders  to  his  son  but  is  not  obliged  to  trans- 
mit.    That  is,  such  a  privilege  as  the  knowledge  of  the 
family  legend  could  not  be  withheld  from  the  eldest  son 
since  it  is  his  birthright.     On  the  other  hand,  a  father  may 
exercise  some  discretion  in  regard  to  such  a  secret  as  the 
ritual  for  spearing  fish;  if  he  consider  his  son  unworthy, 
he  will  refuse  to  give  him  the  requisite  instructions.     The 
topati  are  exceedingly  numerous.     They  include  names, — 
not  only  those  designating  the  owner  himself,  but  also  those 
he  has  an  exclusive  right  to  apply  to  his  slaves,  his  houses, 
canoes  or  harpoons ;  the  right  to  certain  carvings  on  grave 
posts  or  totem  poles;   the  prerogative  of  singing  certain 
songs,   including  even  lullabies,   and   of   executing  certain 
dances;  and  many  other  privileges.     Some  of  these  are  of 
an  amazingly  special  character.     For  example,  in  the  Wolf 
ritual  the  particular  coloring  and  decoration  of  certain  per- 
formers are  the  inherited  patents  of  the  man  who  arranges 
the  festival ;  the  right  to  set  a  trap  to  capture  the  wolf- 
impersonators  is  associated  with  a  particular  lineage ;  one 
actor  who  limps  and  howls  in  a  peculiar  way  does  so  by 
virtue  of  inherited  prerogative.   The  same  applies  to  solemn 
chants  sung  at  particular  junctures,  to  the  lassoing  of  novi- 
ces, the  loud  and  rapid  beating  of  a  drum  at  one  point  of 
the  drama,  the  wearing  of  bear  skins  at  another,  the  black- 
ening of  all  the  spectators'   faces.     Other  ceremonies  are 
marked  by  corresponding  exhibitions  of  topati;  thus,  in  the 
girls'   puberty   festival   the   right   to   receive  a  ceremonial 
torch  was  a  jealously  guarded  hereditary  privilege. 

While  the  Nootka  stress  the  hereditary^  character  of  their 
immaterial  forms  of  property,  which  is  tantamount  to  mak- 
ing the  privileges  the  joint  property  of  a  group,  the  indi- 
vidualistic character  of  incorporeal  property  is  on  the  whole 
strongly  marked  among  the    Indians   of   the    Plains.      In 


238  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

order  to  understand  the  phenomena  found  in  this  region 
we  are  obHged  to  transcend  for  a  moment  the  sphere  of 
purely  sociological  data  and  enter  the  domain  of  religious 
belief.  The  center  of  Plains  Indian  religion  is  occupied  by 
the  conceptions  and  practices  connected  with  visionary  ex- 
periences. These  sometimes  come  unsought  to  the  fortu- 
nate man  favored  by  supernatural  beings  but  was  far  more 
commonly  stimulated  by  a  several  days'  fast  on  a  lonely 
hilltop.  The  tenor  of  the  revelation  would  often  determine 
the  course  of  the  successful  visionary's  future  career.  If 
he  saw  a  buffalo  recommending  the  use  of  a  certain  mix- 
ture of  roots  for  the  treatment  of  wounds,  he  would  set  up 
as  a  practitioner  and  success  would  gain  for  him  fame  and 
riches.  If  he  was  instructed  to  organize  a  new  dancing 
society  with  a  definite  set  of  songs  and  regalia,  he  would 
forthwith  become  the  founder  of  such  an  organization  with 
a  probable  rise  of  prestige  and  possibly  other  benefits.  If 
he  saw  a  horseman  carrying  a  peculiarly  ornamented  shield 
and  escaping  unscathed  from  a  hostile  onslaught,  he  would 
henceforth  feel  secure  in  any  encounter  and  establish  a 
reputation  for  reckless  bravery. 

But  the  visionary  experience  might  extend  its  beneficent 
influences  to  other  individuals  who  had  never  ventured  in 
quest  of  a  revelation  or  had  tried  and  failed  to  obtain 
supernatural  favors ;  and  they  might  come  to  share  the 
benefits  not  merely  in  a  subsidiary  fashion,  as  patients 
cured  by  a  visionary  or  as  participants  in  the  dance  he 
founded,  but  in  the  fullest  sense,  as  though  they  themselves 
had  enjoyed  the  spiritual  blessing.  This  was  rendered  pos- 
sible by  the  notion  that  privileges  conferred  by  a  spirit  are 
transferable;  and  this  conception  became  a  source  of  gain 
to  the  visionary  through  the  additional  conception  that  they 
were  alienable  only  through  sale.  Why  certain  rights 
should  have  come  to  be  prized  by  the  people  of  this  or  that 
tribe  is  not  always  obvious  any  more  than  in  the  case  of 
the   Nootka;   the   important   fact   is   that  they  are  highly 


PROPERTY  239 

esteemed  and  thus  add  to  the  social  standing  of  the  posses- 
sor; that  no  one  ventures  to  infringe  his  patent;  and  that 
any  one  desirous  of  sharing  it  or  buying  it  outright  will 
sacrifice  property  to  what  we  should  consider  an  absurd 
amount.  Transfer  by  gift  is  excluded  even  where  the  re- 
lationship of  the  negotiating  parties  is  as  close  as  possible : 
I  know  of  a  Crow  who  bought  the  right  of  using  a  special 
kind  of  ceremonial  paint  from  his  own  mother,  and  the 
Hidatsa  medicine  bundles,  uniformly  derived  from  ances- 
tral visions  and  hereditary  in  certain  families,  must  never- 
theless be  bought  by  sons  from  their  own  fathers.  In  many 
instances,  as  in  the  one  last  mentioned,  tangible  commo- 
dities too  may  be  transferred,  but  the  principal  thing  is  not 
the  corporeal  object — the  pipe  or  feather  or  rattle — but  in- 
variably the  immaterial  privilege  with  instructions  about 
correlated  songs  and  methods  of  handling  the  sacred  ob- 
ject or  warnings  as  to  taboos  indissolubly  bound  up  with 
the  visionary  prerogative.  Because  of  the  comparative  in- 
significance of  the  visible  object  a  replica  may  readily  be 
substituted  for  the  visionar)''s  own  emblem,  nay,  may  be 
supplied  by  the  purchaser  himself.  It  does  not  matter 
whether  he  takes  the  seller's  rabbit  foot,  ermine  skin  and 
eagle  feather  or  secures  them  by  his  own  efforts :  what  he 
is  buying  is  the  right  to  use  this  particular  combination  of 
objects  together  with  the  right  to  the  associated  songs  and 
activities,  but  also  with  any  coexistent  duties  and  restric- 
tions on  conduct. 

The  rules  as  to  different  ceremonial  privileges  naturally 
vary  somewhat.  Sometimes  the  seller  does  not  alienate  his 
ownership  completely  but  merely  permits  the  buyer  to  share 
in  its  benefits  in  return;  but  sometimes  there  is  the  qualifi- 
cation that  the  owner  may  not  dispose  of  his  rights  more 
than  four  times,  the  fourth  partial  sale  terminating  his  own 
proprietary  rights.  In  other  cases  the  buyer  purchases  the 
privileges  in  question  outright,  a  single  transfer  completely 
divesting  the  seller  of  ownership. 


240  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

These  general  principles  are  best  driven  home  by  con- 
crete illustrations.  I  will  select  two  examples,  the  right  to 
plant  the  sacred  Tobacco  of  the  Crow  and  the  purchase  of 
membership  in  the  military  organizations  of  the  Hidatsa. 

In  order  to  secure  the  right  to  join  in  the  planting  of  the 
sacred  Tobacco,  it  is  necessary  to  be  initiated  by  a  member 
of  the  Tobacco  society,  to  be  adopted  as  his  'son.'  This 
feature  emphasizes  the  individual  character  of  the  proceed- 
ing. No  man  can  be  taken  in  by  the  society  as  a  whole ; 
he  is  fathered  by  his  individual  sponsor  as  he  in  turn  was 
fathered  by  the  person  who  introduced  hijii,  and  as  the 
founder  of  the  society  was  fathered  by  the  supernatural 
being  that  bade  him  plant  Tobacco  for  his  own  and  the 
tribal  welfare.  The  fact  that  the  planting  privilege  is 
shared  by  a  group  is  from  the  Crow  point  of  view  inci- 
dental :  it  has  merely  happened  that  in  the  case  of  the 
Tobacco  those  purchasing  the  same  medicine  have  shown 
greater  solidarity  than  those  buying,  say,  the  same  war 
medicine,  and  that  consequently  they  have  come  to  form  a 
society  instead  of  a  mere  series  of  unassociated  individuals 
with  similar  privileges.  In  addition  to  the  generic  right  to 
plant  Tobacco,  each  novice  acquires  specific  medicines, 
which  he  is  allowed  to  choose  from  those  unfolded  before 
him  by  the  adopting  section  of  the  society.  Further,  there 
is  a  multiplicity  of  specific  privileges  recalling  those  of  the 
Nootka  but  differing  in  their  non-hereditary  character.  For 
each  medicine  object  and  each  privilege  separate  payment 
must  be  made.  Thus,  a  woman  named  Cuts-the-picketed- 
mule  paid  a  horse  for  a  Tobacco  bag,  another  horse  with 
otterskins  for  a  breast  ornament,  a  horse  for  the  privilege 
of  sitting  next  to  the  door.  These  payments  were  over  and 
above  the  initiation  fee  given  to  the  'father'  and  were 
yielded  to  such  members  of  his  section  as  held  the  preroga- 
tives. Since  the  novice  is  aided  by  friends  and  relatives 
and  because  the  main  privilege  he  seeks  is  held  jointly,  an 
appearance  of  collective  purchase  is  produced  that  is  quite 


PROPERTY  241 

foreign  to  the  essence  of  the  transaction.  Inasmuch  as  it 
is  a  matter  of  pride  to  do  things  handsomely  at  an  initia- 
tion, the  candidate  is  more  or  less  liberally  aided  by  his 
kin,  his  friends,  and  his  club.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
'father'  who  receives,  say,  fifty  horses  would  incur  the  re- 
proach of  avarice  if  he  retained  the  fee  without  making  ade- 
quate deductions  on  behalf  of  fellow-members  of  his  sec- 
tion. These  are,  however,  merely  personal  or  ethical  mo- 
tives intruding  on  a  strictly  legal  procedure,  by  which  an 
individual  A  yields  a  share  in  his  planting  privilege  to  an 
individual  B,  who  is  obliged  to  furnish  compensation. 

A  remarkable  blending  of  the  collective  and  the  individ- 
ualistic element  appears  in  the  Hidatsa  military  clubs. 
Other  features  of  these  organizations  will  be  noticed  in  a 
later  chapter;  here  it  is  the  conception  of  meml>ership  as 
property  that  alone  requires  attention.  According  to  Hid- 
atsa theory,  these  societies  with  their  songs,  regalia  and 
functions  were  revealed  to  visionaries  who  subsequently 
founded  them  in  obedience  to  supernatural  instructors; 
when  an  Hidatsa  does  not  know  the  legendary  vision  on 
which  a  society  is  based,  he  at  once  suspects  its  alien  origin. 
In  other  words,  we  meet  again  the  notion  of  an  individual 
revelation  bestowing  on  the  beneficiary  transferable  pre- 
rogatives. Since  the  visionary  was  instructed  to  found  a 
society,  the  collective  feature  is  inevitable  under  normal  con- 
ditions. Yet  in  principle  we  are  merely  dealing  with  a 
proprietary  right  that  may  be  shared  by  a  group  but  may 
also  be  held  by  a  single  person.  This  is  proved  Iw  the  fact 
that  at  one  time  when  all  the  owners  of  a  certain  society 
with  a  solitary  exception  had  been  carried  off  by  disease, 
this  survivor  actually  was  sole  proprietor  and  sold  his  mem- 
bership to  a  group  of  young  men  eager  to  acquire  it.  As 
compared  with  the  Tobacco-planting  privilege,  the  member- 
ship in  a  military  club  differs  in  that  it  is  sold  outright,  so 
that  the  'father'  wholly  abdicates  his  place  in  favor  of  the 
'son.' 


242  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Normally  the  collective  feature  appeared  in  that  a  group 
of  buyers  jointly  purchased  membership  from  a  group  of 
sellers.  A  reason  for  the  collective  procedure  will  be  sug- 
gested later.  What  concerns  us  here  is  that  the  transfer  of 
property  was  essentially  individual.  There  was  an  initial 
accumulation  of  goods  by  the  'sons'  in  a  body,  and  through 
this  property  they  sought  to  induce  the  owners  to  consider 
selling  their  membership  rights.  But  with  the  commence- 
ment of  the  sale  itself  each  buyer  selected  a  seller  belong- 
ing to  his  own  father's  sib  as  his  individual  'father,'  and 
henceforth  the  affair  was  an  individual  transfer.  In  pur- 
chasing certain  of  the  societies  it  w-as  customary  to  sur- 
render one's  wife ;  but  there  was  never  a  wholesale  sur- 
render of  wives  by  the  buyers  to  the  sellers  as  a  group : 
each  man  took  his  wife  to  his  individual  'father.'  Again, 
if  the  'father'  held  some  special  office  and  regalia  in  the 
society,  then  they  were  automatically  transferred  to  his 
'son.'  The  entire  transaction  was  at  bottom  not  the  trans- 
fer of  proprietary  rights  from  one  corporation  to  another 
but  resolves  itself  into  a  multiple  simultaneous  transfer  of 
individual  ownership  rights. 

Thus  the  individual  character  of  proprietary  rights 
founded  on  visionary  experiences  asserts  itself  even  where 
the  rights  are  shared  by  a  company  of  individuals.  A  for- 
tiori, it  will  have  to  be  accepted  as  unquestioned  where,  as 
in  the  case  of  many  war  medicines  and  medicine  bundles, 
there  is  a  negotiation  between  only  two  individuals,  the 
buyer  and  the  seller.  Certain  incorporeal  forms  of  prop- 
erty thus  support  beyond  cavil  the  possibility  of  personal 
ownership  at  a  rude  stage  of  civilization.  This  is  certainly 
quite  unequivocal  where  a  father  cannot  transmit  a  mode 
of  painting  the  face  nor  even  an  hereditary  set  of  rituals 
to  his  own  son  without  receipt  of  compensation.  Of  course 
we  must  not  forget  that  incorporeal  pro]:)erty.  as  among 
the  Nootka,  may  also  descend  automatically  and  in  that 
sense  Ix;  joint  property.     The  point  is  that  among  the  An- 


PROPERTY  243 

daman  Islanders,  the  Kai,  the  Koryak  and  the  Plains  In- 
dians, regardless  of  any  laws  relating  to  material  posses- 
sions, there  are  also  patents  and  reserved  rights  which  are 
held  personally  and  upon  which  no  one  not  duly  qur.lified 
dare  encroach.^ 

Incorporeal  property,  however,  should  not  be  considered 
merely  from  this  angle.  Its  very  existence  among  the 
simpler  peoples  is  of  the  highest  interest;  and  not  less  re- 
markable are  the  Protean  forms  it  assumes  under  favor- 
able conditions. 

Inheritance 

Nothing  brings  out  more  clearly  the  difference  between 
individual  and  collective  control  of  property  than  the  vary- 
ing degrees  of  liberty  accorded  to  the  individual  by  differ- 
ent societies  as  to  testamentary  disposition.  The  contrast 
is  marked  between  a  Torres  Straits  Islander  who  may  de- 
prive any  of  his  children  from  a  share  in  his  estate  and 
the  Kai  whose  possessions  are  automatically  disposed  of  by 
customary  law, — whose  pigs  are  slaughtered  for  the  funeral 
feast,  whose  boar's  tusks  and  dog's  teeth  bags  pass  into  the 
hands  of  his  brothers  or  maternal  uncles,  and  whose  sons 
inherit  the  fruit-trees  he  has  personally  planted. 

This  last-mentioned  case  illustrates  an  important  princi- 
ple already  envisaged  by  the  penetrating  intelligence  of 
Maine.  Archaic  law  often  establishes  a  differentiation  be- 
tween hereditary  and  acquired  possessions,  as  has  already 
been  pointed  out  for  Melanesia.  Where  this  classification 
occurs,  the  tendency  is  to  assign  greater  freedom  with  re- 
gard to  the  acquired  belongings,  a  man  being  reckoned 
master  of  what  his  personal  efforts  have  produced.  This 
consideration  may  naturally  be  overruled  by  factors  of  a 
different  order.  A  Plains  Indian  cannot  simply  transmit 
the  rights  acquired  through  fasting  for  a  vision  because  of 
the  principle  that  such  rights  can  be  acquired  only  by  like 


244  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

visions  or  by  purchase;  and,  as  shown  for  the  Hidatsa 
bundles,  the  feehng  on  this  subject  may  be  so  strong  that 
even  an  hereditary  privilege  can  be  validated  only  by  for- 
mally buying  it  from  one's  father. 

Rules  of  inheritance  are  sometimes  greatly  simplified  by 
the  custom  of  burying  or  otherwise  destroying  all  of  the 
decedent's  effects.  Thus  the  Maidu  burn  practically  all  of 
the  dead  person's  belongings,  the  meager  residue  being  ap- 
portioned among  the  eldest  son  as  chief  heir  and  other  chil- 
dren and  relatives,  and  the  right  to  fishing-holes  and  deer- 
drives  descending  in  the  direct  male  line.  Among  the 
Assiniboin  the  weapons,  clothes  and  utensils  of  the  dead 
were  deposited  with  the  corpse,  as  were  sacred  shields  and 
pipes.  Here  and  in  other  parts  of  the  Plains  area  the  dead 
man's  best  horses  were  sometimes  turned  loose  or  killed, 
leaving  a  very  small  remnant  for  distribution  among  the 
survivors.  In  addition  we  sometimes  learn  of  the  abandon- 
ment or  destruction  of  the  lodge  in  which  the  demise  oc- 
curred, a  custom  resting  on  a  morbid  fear  of  death.  Thus 
the  Pima  of  Arizona  not  only  kill  and  eat  what  live  stock 
may  remain  and  destroy  personal  belongings,  but  also  burn 
down  the  householder's  hut. 

Certain  principles  already  described  in  connection  with 
the  titles  to  ownership  necessarily  apply  to  inheritance. 
Thus,  a  woman's  articles  of  dress  or  artifacts  made  and 
used  by  women,  such  as  earthenware  vessels,  generally  pass 
into  the  hands  of  her  daughters  or  other  female  kin  because 
only  they  could  make  effective  use  of  them,  while  a  man's 
weapons  are  inheritable  only  by  men.  It  is  this  principle, 
doubtless  often  in  conjunction  with  others,  that  accounts 
for  one  of  the  most  frequent  rules  of  inheritance,  viz.,  the 
exclusion  of  the  widow  from  the  number  of  her  husband's 
heirs.  Her  disabilities  cannot  be  wholly  explained  by  her 
lowly  status,  for  they  obtain  also  in  regions  where  women 
occupy  a  fair  position  in  society,  and  they  are  paralleled  by 
the  husband's  inability  to  inherit  from  the  wife.     When. 


PROPERTY  245 

therefore,  an  Ostyak  widow  is  described  as  incapable  of 
owning  her  deceased  husband's  reindeer,  the  matter  may 
be  conceived  as  follows.  The  domestication  and  care  of 
reindeer  by  the  male  sex  established  an  empirical  associa- 
tion between  men  and  this  form  of  chattel  so  that  it  ap- 
peared as  unnatural  for  a  woman  to  hold  property  of  this 
type  as  for  a  man  to  inherit  feminine  apparel.  Accord- 
ingly, the  herds  went  to  a  man's  nearest  male  relatives  and 
women  were  barred  from  any  share.  This  in  itself  need 
not  affect  their  status  since  a  priori  they  might  have  prop- 
erty rights  offsetting  their  disabilities.  Empirically,  how- 
ever, no  such  compensatory  privileges  exist  in  pastoral 
tribes,  hence  the  relative  degradation  of  women  among 
them. 

Another  factor  that  must  be  considered  in  this  connec- 
tion is  the  conception  of  marriage  as  a  contract  between 
distinct  groups  of  kindred :  husband  and  wife  are  allies 
whose  individuality  remains  separate,  i.e.,  merged  in  that 
of  the  groups  they  respectively  represent,  hence  their  prop- 
erty reverts  to  the  group  of  their  origin.  Thus  it  happens 
that  while  a  Kai  man's  heirs  are  his  brothers  and  maternal 
uncles  his  wife's  valuables  are  appropriated  by  her  brothers 
and  mother's  brothers.  This  factor  may  appear  very  promi- 
nently where  the  groups  are  sibs,  in  other  words,  where  the 
kindred  group  is  defined  with  perfect  precision.  Among 
the  Altaian  Turks  property  is  inherited  by  the  sons  or,  fail- 
ing male  issue,  by  the  father's  brothers  or  male  kinsmen; 
only  when  all  of  these  are  lacking  can  a  daughter  become 
the  heiress. 

But  in  recognizing  the  potency  of  the  sib  factor  in  mould- 
ing inheritance  rules  we  must  be  careful  not  to  exaggerate 
its  importance.  In  the  first  place,  while  a  sib  system  once 
firmly  established  often  reacts  on  property  law,  w^e  have 
found  reasons  for  assuming  that  fundamentally  it  is  often 
the  rules  of  inheritance  that  lie  at  the  bottom  of  the  sib 
notion.     What  the  sib  organization  can  do  is  to  make  a 


246  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

remote  relative  who  belongs  to  the  dead  person's  sib  take 
precedence  of  a  close  relative  outside  the  sib,  but  probably 
it  is  never  strictly  correct  to  describe  the  sib  as  the  pro- 
prietary unit.  For  the  sib  embraces  both  men  and  women, 
yet  by  the  ever-present  division  of  sexual  function  what- 
ever proprietary  rights  occur  are  usually  not  held  by  both 
male  and  female  members  but  either  by  one  sex  or  the 
other.  The  Hopi  furnish  a  favorable  illustration.  Houses 
invariably  belong  to  women  and  consequently  descend  from 
mother  to  daughter;  the  position  of  Snake  priest  likewise 
remains  within  the  sib  but  it  is  transmitted  from  brother  to 
brother,  or  from  uncle  to  sister's  son.  It  is  somewhat  mis- 
leading to  say  that  the  sib  owns  the  dwellings  and  the  cere- 
monial office;  the  real  co-proprietors  are  female  sib-mates 
in  one  case  and  male  sib-mates  in  the  other.  Further,  fre- 
quently it  cannot  even  h^  asserted  that  all  the  male  or 
female  sib-mates  are  co-proprietors  since  the  real  owners 
are  the  blood-kin  within  the  sib.  Just  as  with  the  levirate 
so  in  the  case  of  other  proprietary  rights  descent  is  to  the 
nearest  kinsman  of  the  sib,  not  to  any  sib-mate  without  dis- 
tinction. The  sib  organization,  in  short,  involves  the  ex- 
clusion of  certain  close  kindred  from  inheritance  and  the 
inclusion  of  remote  or  putative  kindred,  but  it  acts  in  con- 
junction with  existing  notions  as  to  sexual  functions  and 
the  precedence  of  relatives  on  the  basis  of  propinquity. 

Equally  important  is  the  circumstance  that  in  communi- 
ties organized  into  sibs  property  is  not  all  necessarily  trans- 
mitted within  the  sib.  The  Crow  when  in  recent  years  con- 
fronted with  a  new  type  of  property  in  the  form  of  real 
estate,  applied  their  matrilineal  scheme  'to  the  inheritance 
of  land ;  but  a  different  principle  usually  obtained  with-  re- 
gard to  inheritable  sacred  possessions,  which  were  trans- 
mitted from  parent  to  son  and  from  brother  to  brother. 
In  this  respect  they  resemble  the  Hidatsa,  who  transmitted 
gardens  matrilineally  and  sacred  bundles  patrilineally.  It 
can  of  course  be  argued  that  such  instances  exemplify  a 


PROPERTY  247 

transitional  stage  from  one  uniform  rule  of  inheritance  to 
another.  But  that  is  to  assume  that  rules  of  inheritance 
must  follow  a  consistent  plan  for  all  forms  of  property. 
The  trouble  is  that  historical  processes  are  not  shaped  with 
such  logical  nicety.  Granted  that  a  fixed  rule  of  descent 
were  followed  by  a  people  regarding  one  form  of  prop- 
erty, the  borrowing  of  a  new  form  of  wealth  might  pro- 
duce an  entirely  new  set  of  laws  for  its  transmission.  This 
new  code  could  either  originate  spontaneously  or  be  simply 
borrowed  together  with  the  property  itself.  Accordingly, 
I  am  not  inclined  to  accept  the  theory,  unless  supported  by 
concrete  data,  that  mixed  rules  of  inheritance  are  a  sign  of 
a  change  in  the  rule  of  descent,  either  from  the  maternal 
to  the  paternal  or  vice  versa.  For  example,  the  Melanesian 
custom  of  transmitting  fruit-trees  patrilineally  and  land 
matrilineally  may  be  due  to  the  distinct  history  of  these 
forms  of  property;  and  no  unification  has  taken  place  sim- 
ply because  the  concrete  mind  of  the  savage  jurist  does  not 
develop  an  abstract  conception  of  real  estate  property, 
under  which  are  subsumed  both  trees  and  land,  but  con- 
ceives trees  as  one  thing  and  land  as  another.  This  mode 
of  thinking  was  forcibly  impressed  on  me  when  in  an  heroic 
attempt  to  render  a  nursery  tale  into  classical  Crow  I  spoke 
of  a  little  girl  who  owned  nothing  but  a  loaf  of  bread  in 
her  hand  and  the  clothes  she  wore.  I  was  at  once  informed 
that  the  two  possessions  could  not  be  coupled ;  between  food 
and  raiment  there  was  no  connecting  link  for  the  Crow 
mind.  It  was  not  possible,  accordingly,  to  express  the  Eng- 
lish thought  in  a  single  sentence,  which  had  to  be  resolved 
into  two  distinct  predications,  the  one  relating  to  the  limi- 
tation in  the  food  supply,  the  other  to  the  category  of  mov- 
ables represented  by  dress. 

In  other  words,  if  we  substitute  a  psychological  and  his- 
torical for  the  irrelevant  logical  point  of  view,  the  coexist- 
ence of  different  rules  of  inheritance  for  different  classes  of 
property  is  quite  intelligible.    Those  inheritance  laws  which 


248  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

give  rise  to  the  sib  concept  will  of  course  often  persist  in 
accord  with  the  fully  developed  sib  system ;  but  other  laws 
of  equal  or  greater  antiquity  may  continue  to  apply  to  spe- 
cial types  of  property,  and  still  other  laws  may  be  added 
in  connection  with  novel  possessions. 

I  will  now  discuss  more  particularly  certain  rules  of  in- 
heritance, merely  mentioning  the  avunculate  here  because 
its  implications  have  already  been  discussed. 

Primogeniture  occurs  but  is  relatively  rare  in  primitive 
society  even  where  the  eldest  child  enjoys  a  certain  ascend- 
ancy over  his  siblings.  Sometimes  there  is  no  discrimina- 
tion on  the  basis  of  seniority;  the  Vedda  distribute  property 
fairly  among  the  adult  children,  the  daughters'  shares  being 
often  nominally  given  to  their  husbands.  The  Kandh  of 
Orissa  also  have  an  equal  division  of  land  among  the  sons, 
though  the  office  of  headman  descends  to  the  eldest.  The 
Ifugao  allot  to  the  first-born  the  major  portion  of  the 
estate,  yet  we  have  seen  that  he  is  virtually  not  more  than 
its  administrator  for  the  benefit  of  the  entire  group  of 
kinsmen.  Among  the  Maritime  Chukchi  the  eldest  son  has 
the  best  share  of  his  father's  weapons  and  implements,  but 
all  the  brothers  receive  their  portion,  even  the  house  being 
frequently  divided  into  parts.  Primogeniture  is  further 
quahfied  in  polygynous  communities  by  the  superior  status 
of  one  of  the  wives,  usually  but  not  always  the  first  one, 
regardless  of  the  age  of  the  sons.  Among  the  Masai  it  is 
the  eldest  son  of  the  principal  wife  who  inherits  the  largest 
portion  of  his  father's  stock  and  assumes  control  of  the 
girls  in  the  family.  However,  all  the  other  sons  inherit  that 
share  of  the  herds  which  has  been  previously  assigned  to 
their  respective  mothers  for  usufructuary  possession.  In 
practice  all  sorts  of  complications  may  arise.  The  testa- 
mentary powers  yielded  to  a  decedent  will  modify  the  cus- 
tomary disposition  of  property.  A  dying  Kikuyu  may  allot 
larger  and  smaller  herds  to  his  several  sons  according  to 
their  place  in  his  affections.     While  the  eldest  adult  son 


PROPERTY  249 

takes  possession  of  the  let^acy,  he  is  merely  an  executor 
administering  the  estate  according  to  the  testator's  bequest. 
If  there  are  only  infant  children,  the  property  goes  to  one 
or  several  of  the  dead  person's  younger  brothers  according 
to  his  will.  But  they,  too,  are  merely  trustees  carefully 
watched  by  the  wives  of  the  deceased,  whose  sons  claim 
their  legacy  on  reaching  maturity.  Among  some  of  the 
Kafir  tribes  of  South  Africa  two  wives  were  formally  ap- 
pointed as  taking  precedence  over  other  consorts, — "the 
great  one"  and  the  "right-hand  one."  The  eldest  son  of 
the  great  wife  inherited  his  father's  rank  and  all  the  prop- 
erty that  had  not  been  specially  assigned  to  the  son  of  the 
right-hand  wife.  A  father  could  set  aside  some  portions 
for  the  eldest  sons  of  his  minor  wives,  but  if  undue  prefer- 
ence was  shown  to  them  his  settlements  were  invalidated 
after  his  death.  In  the  absence  of  issue,  brothers  inherited 
the  estate ;  failing  brothers,  it  was  appropriated  by  the 
chief,  daughters  being  barred  from  the  legacy. 

The  Kikuyu  and  Kafir  tribes  introduce  us  to  the  rule  of 
collateral  inheritance,  which  in  some  other  parts  of  the 
world  attains  a  far  greater  importance,  brothers  being  the 
principal  heirs,  at  least  in  a  possessory  sense,  to  the  exclu- 
sion or  disadvantage  of  sons.  This  custom  is  clearly 
brought  out  in  the  Thonga  law  regulating  succession  to 
office,  which  seeks  to  reconcile  two  disparate  principles,  the 
preeminence  of  one  branch  of  the  family  and  the  collective 
ownership  of  property  by  brothers.  When  a  headman  or 
chief  dies,  the  oldest  son  of  the  principal  wife  is  viewed  as 
the  rightful  heir,  but  he  cannot  succeed  until  all  the  de* 
ceased  ruler's  younger  brothers  have  in  turn  held  office  and 
died.  This  system  likewise  regulated  the  succession  of 
Aztec  war  chiefs  in  Tenochtitlan.  The  Maori  case  is  like- 
wise of  interest.  As  regards  rank,  primogeniture  held 
sway:  the  priest-chief  was  the  eldest  son  of  the  eldest  son 
of  the  eldest  son,  etc.,  of  the  line  claiming  descent  from 
the  gods.    But  in  the  inheritance  of  land  primogeniture  was 


250  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

tempered  with  collateral  privileges:  "If  a  father  had  sons 
named  A,  B,  C,  D,  on  the  death  of  the  father  the  property 
passed  to  A,  but  not  on  the  death  of  A  to  A's  son.  It  went 
to  B,  and  on  B's  death  to  C,  and  so  on  to  D,  but  at  D's 
death  it  reverted  to  the  son  of  A."  Sometimes  the  claims 
of  collateral  heirs  were  still  stronger.  Among  the  Arapaho 
Indians  the  bulk  of  the  property,  which  in  recent  times  con- 
sisted largely  of  horses,  was  appropriated  by  the  siblings  of 
the  deceased,  the  adult  sons  being  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses disinherited.  Similar  practices  obtained  among  the 
Crow  as  regards  both  land  and  horses. 

Where  a  matrilineal  organization  affects  the  rules  oi 
inheritance  both  estate  and  office  may  descend  by  prefer- 
ence to  a  brother  and  only  secondarily  to  the  sister's  son, 
either  method  of  course  assuring  the  retention  of  the  prop- 
erty within  the  sib.  From  this  fact  some  writers  have 
drawn  the  conclusion  that  fraternal  inheritance  in  a  given 
tribe  constitutes  a  survival  from  a  former  matrilineal 
scheme.  The  Arapaho,  who  are  described  as  sibless,  would 
by  this  school  be  classed  as  at  one  time  matrilineal.  It  is 
difficult  to  advance  a  weaker  argument  in  support  of  a  hope- 
less case.  Of  course,  brothers  are  members  of  the  same 
mother-sib  if  descent  is  matrilineal,  but  it  is  equally  true 
that  they  are  members  of  the  same  father-sib  where  de- 
scent is  patrilineal.  The  mere  fact  of  fraternal  inheritance 
is  thus  utterly  inconclusive  as  to  either  maternal  or  pater- 
nal descent.  On  the  other  hand,  the  collateral  rule  has  much 
to  commend  it  on  grounds  of  equity,  in  which  respect  it  is 
certainly  far  superior  to  primogeniture.  If  a  title  is  estab- 
lished on  the  basis  of  effective  utilization,  the  mature 
brother  must  certainly  take  precedence  of  the  adolescent  or 
juvenile  son.  Again,  if  a  unit  estate  is  founded  by  a  father 
with  four  sons  and  partition  is  impracticable,  it  is  assuredly 
one  of  the  fairest  of  conceivable  plans  to  transmit  the 
superintendency  to  the  eldest  son  and  then  successively  to 
each  of  the  others.     Collateral  inheritance  is  consequently 


PROPERTY  251 

not  in  the  least  mysterious  when  found  within  a  patriHneal 
society. 

The  antithesis  of  primogeniture  is  represented  by  a  cus- 
tom that  held  sway  in  parts  of  Britain  under  the  name  of 
'borough-english'  and  is  ethnologically  known  as  junior- 
right  because  it  makes  the  youngest  child  the  principal,  or 
at  least  the  preferential,  heir.  India  forms  one  center  for 
this  usage.  The  Badaga,  neighbors  of  the  Toda,  have  the 
sons  of  a  family  leave  the  parental  roof  on  marriage  and 
set  up  households  of  their  own;  only  the  youngest  remains 
with  his  parents,  supports  them  in  their  old  age,  and  auto- 
matically acquires  possession  of  their  home  when  they  die. 
To  a  lesser  extent  junior-right  occurs  among  the  Toda 
themselves.  The  father's  buffaloes  often  remain  the  joint 
property  of  all  the  sons,  but  if  the  need  for  partition  arises 
there  is  an  equal  division  except  that  one  additional  animal 
falls  to  the  share  of  the  eldest  and  one  to  that  of  the 
youngest  son.  If  there  are  only  two  sons,  each  would  take 
half  of  the  herd.  With  four  sons  and  sixteen  buffaloes  the 
eldest  and  the  youngest  take  four  each,  the  second  and 
third  brothers  take  three  apiece,  and  the  remaining  animals 
are  either  sold,  the  purchase  money  being  equally  divided, 
or  taken  by  one  of  the  brothers  who  indemnifies  the  others, 
dividing  three-quarters  of  the  value  of  the  buffalo  among 
them.  The  Naga  of  Manipur,  while  on  the  whole  inclining 
to  limited  primogeniture,  practise  junior-right  in  certain 
localities,  the  youngest  son  inheriting  both  the  father's 
house  and  the  most  valuable  of  his  movable  belongings. 
Most  interesting  are  the  inheritance  rules  of  the  Khasi, 
who  blend  feminine  prerogatives  and  junior-right.  Here 
the  youngest  daughter  performs  the  family  ritual  in  pro- 
pitiation of  ancestors,  inherits  possession  of  the  house  and 
contents,  and  receives  the  lion's  share  of  the  family  jewelry ; 
however,  she  may  not  dispose  of  the  house  without  the 
unanimous  consent  of  her  sisters.  On  her  death  she  is 
succeeded  by  the  next  youngest  daughter,  and  so  on.     Fail- 


252  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

ing  daughters,  the  inheritance  passes  to  the  sister's  youngest 
daughter,  who  in  turn  is  succeeded  by  her  youngest  daugh- 
ters. FaiHng  sister's  daughters,  the  estate  reverts  to  the 
mother's  sisters.  But  the  laws  regulating  succession  to 
office  rest  on  a  different  principle.  A  chief  is  succeeded  by 
his  eldest  uterine  sister's  sons  in  order  of  seniority,  and, 
failing  issue,  by  the  sons  of  the  next  oldest  sister.  In  one 
district  where  the  pontifical  position  is  held  by  a  woman,  she 
is  succeeded  by  her  eldest  daughter.  A  trace  of  junior- 
right  has  likewise  been  noted  in  the  higher  levels  of  Hindu 
civilization,  for  the  Laws  of  Manu,  while  assigning  a  larger 
share  to  the  first-born,  also  mention  a  special  allotment  in 
favor  of  the  youngest  son. 

This  usage,  so  contrary  to  current  legal  notions,  also 
appears  farther  north.  During  his  lifetime  a  Kirgiz  father 
seeks  to  establish  his  sons  as  independent  stock-breeders. 
He  will  assign  to  his  first-bom  a  large  portion  of  his  herds ; 
if  necessary,  he  buys  new  winter-quarters  for  him,  other- 
wise he  assigns  to  him  a  section  of  his  own  grounds.  In 
similar  fashion  other  sons  are  provided  for,  and  the  young- 
est remains  heir  of  the  paternal  pastures  and  other  posses- 
sions. If  several  sons  remain,  there  is  an  equitable  division 
of  the  herds  and  the  winter  quarters  are  used  by  them 
jointly  or  are  divided  up  by  common  agreement;  a  division, 
however,  rarely  occurs  as  it  would  be  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  youngest  son.  For  by  Kirgiz  law  it  is  the  eldest 
brother's  duty  to  acquire  new  winter  pastures  as  soon  as 
the  herds  multiply  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  inherited  or 
assigned  territory,  and  if  the  increase  continues  after  his 
separation  the  obligation  still  rests  with  the  eldest  of  the 
remaining  brothers  to  find  new  grazing-land,  until  finally 
only  the  youngest  remains  in  possession  of  his  father's 
land.  Among  the  Yukaghir  a  like  result  is  accomplished 
by  another  cause.  The  prevalence  of  matrilocal  residence 
brings  it  about  that  the  elder  brothers  leave  the  father's 
house,  which  accordingly  together  with  other  property  is 


PROPERTY  253 

inherited  by  the  youngest  son.  It  is  doubtless  an  extension 
of  this  basic  custom  that  junior-right  is  applied  to  dis- 
tinctly feminine  articles,  which  pass  from  the  mother  to  the 
youngest  daughter.  Those  tundra-dwelling  Yukaghir  who 
have  borrowed  the  Tungus  custom  of  bride-purchase  are 
naturally  patrilocal  and  in  their  case  the  bulk  of  the  prop- 
erty is  shared  by  all  the  brothers,  their  surviving  mother 
administering  the  household  and  the  eldest  son  controlling 
the  reindeer  herds.  But  ancient  usage  is  sufficiently  strong 
to  preserv'e  for  the  youngest  son's  share  his  father's  gun 
and  clothing. 

Eskimo  inheritance  rules  are  illuminating  both  as  to 
junior-right  and  primitive  property  conceptions  in  general. 
At  first  blush  a  profound  difference  of  principle  seems  to 
divide  the  practice  of  the  Alaskans  about  Bering  Strait, 
where  the  father's  rifle  and  most  valuable  heirlooms  de- 
scend to  the  youngest  son,  and  that  of  the  Greenlanders,  who 
generally  transmit  property  to  the  eldest.  But  a  closer 
reading  of  the  sources  clarifies  the  situation.  The  Green- 
landers  in  reality  modify  the  rule  cited  by  the  principle  of 
ownership  based  on  effective  utilization.  Now  since  no  one 
can  take  care  of  two  tents  or  two  boats  under  Arctic  con- 
ditions, the  eldest  son,  if  he  already  owns  such  property, 
will  not  take  possession  of  his  useless  legacy.  If  his  broth- 
ers are  minors,  he  may  abandon  it  to  an  utter  stranger,  and 
the  sons  growing  up  to  maturity  will  have  no  claims  on  it. 
Accordingly,  Greenland  primogeniture,  so  far  as  it  exists, 
does  not  imply  any  mystical  exaltation  of  the  first-born, 
and  we  are  not  surprised  to  meet  with  the  explicit  statement 
that  among  the  Central  Eskimo  it  is  the  eldest  son  living 
with  his  parents  that  figures  as  the  principal  heir,  while  sons 
and  daughters  with  households  of  their  own  are  excluded. 
We  need  only  assume  that  the  Alaskans  of  Bering  Strait 
observed  the  Yukaghir  or  Kirgiz  custom  with  respect  to  the 
separation  of  adult  sons  and  the  devolution  of  the  paternal 
estate  on  the  youngest  follows  as  a  natural  consequence. 


254  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Junior-right,  like  so  many  other  cultural  phenomena,  sug- 
gests once  more  the  problem  of  diffusion  versus  independ- 
ent origin.  It  is  impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  to 
some  extent  borrowing  has  taken  place.  The  sporadic  oc- 
currence of  junior-right  among  the  Naga  living  in  a  coun- 
try where  the  usage  attains  fuller  development  indicates 
that  it  is  merely  with  them  the  weak  reflection  of  an  institu- 
tion characteristic  of  neighboring  tribes.  Again,  the  dual 
preference  for  the  eldest  and  the  youngest  son  found  in 
the  Laws  of  Manu  and  in  the  Toda  inheritance  law  sug- 
gests an  historical  connection.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
is  not  the  slightest  evidence  that  the  Asiatic  custom  is  con- 
nected with  borough-english;  and  since  junior-right  is  so 
commonly  associated  with  the  departure  of  the  elder  broth- 
ers from  the  paternal  roof  any  condition  favoring  such 
separation  would  tend  to  establish  this  mode  of  inheritance. 
That  is  to  say,  there  is  no  necessity  for  deriving  the  Alas- 
kan from  the  Yukaghir,  or  the  Yukaghir  from  the  Kirgiz 
practice. 

The  data  are  theoretically  interesting  from  another  point 
of  view.  Departure  of  elder  sons  as  an  antecedent  con- 
dition may  produce  junior-right  as  a  result  in  remote  re- 
gions. To  that  extent,  then,  there  is  parallel  evolution.  But 
this  parallelism  is  strictly  limited.  We  need  merely  go  back 
a  single  step  in  comparing  the  evolution  of  Kirgiz  and 
Yukaghir  junior-right  in  order  to  encounter  quite  different 
phenomena.  Preceding  and  effecting  the  breaking  up  of 
the  Yukaghir  family  is  matrilocal  residence,  while  no  such 
cause  operates  among  the  Kirgiz.  Thus,  back  of  the  par- 
tial parallelism  the  lines  of  evolution  lead  to  the  distinct  de- 
terminants, in  other  words,  we  are  once  more  dealing  with 
a  case  of  convergence. 

In  this  extremely  sketchy  treatment  of  primitive  rules  of 
inheritance  it  has  l)een  impossible  to  do  more  than  allude 
to  some  of  the  ramifications  and  intricacies  of  the  subject. 
In  conclusion  I  must  remind  the  reader  that  the  operation 


PROPERTY  255 

of  the  customary  laws  may  be  far  more  variable  and  com- 
plex than  this  brief  description  would  suggest.  An  unscru- 
pulous Thonga  regent  may  seek  to  divert  the  succession 
from  his  elder  brother's  to  his  own  line.  Elsewhere  failure 
of  issue  and  extinction  of  the  entire  lineage  in  the  presence 
of  a  valuable  inheritance  may  stimulate  the  aboriginal  jur- 
ists into  novel  arrangements,  establishing  original  prece- 
dents. Finally,  the  examples  quoted  suffice  to  show  that 
inheritance  of  different  kinds  of  property  may  follow  dis- 
tinct principles,  that  sacred  objects  may  be  transmitted  from 
father  to  son  while  horses  are  appropriated  by  the  dece- 
dent's brothers,  that  the  chieftaincy  may  descend  in  the 
paternal  line  while  real  estate  is  inherited  by  the  sister's  son, 
that  office  may  go  to  the  eldest  born  while  movables  and  im- 
movables may  be  passed  on  by  junior-right.  Here,  as  every- 
where in  ethnology,  the  obstacles  to  a  clear  understanding 
of  reality  lie  in  the  bewitching  simplicity  of  catchwords.^ 

References 

^Keysser:  92  seq.  Cranz :  1,234.  Boas,  1888:  582.  Nel- 
son:  294.    Jochelson,  1908:   769.     Bogoras :   633. 

^  Teit,  1900:  293.  Dixon,  1905:  224.  Speck,  1915  (a); 
id.,  1915  (b)  :  289.  Swanton,  1908:  425.  Malinowski :  150. 
Spencer  and  Gillen,  1899:  590;  ei.,  1904:  13.  Eraser,  J.:  36. 
Brown:  146.  Roth,  1906:  8  seq.  Seligmann :  106-115.  Mar- 
ker: 28,  176,  212.  Rivers,  1906:  557.  Schultze:  197,  318. 
Radloff:   414-420,  452. 

^Stevenson:  290.  Kroeber,  1917:  178.  Speck,  1909:  18. 
Wilson:  9,  10,  108-114.  Bandelier,  1878:  385.  Spinden, 
1917:  184.  Markham:  35.  Restrepo :  121.  Von  den  Stei- 
nen:   285.     Schmidt:   439.     Whiffen:    103. 

*Junod:  11,  6  seq.  Maclean:  149.  Spieth :  111-115.  ElHs, 
A.  B. :  162,216.  Roscoe:  14,133,238,268,424.  Routledge: 
121.    Torday  and  Joyce:   91. 

°  Codrington :  60.  Thomson :  70,  354-386.  Reports,  v : 
284-291  ;  VI :  162-168.  Erdland:  99-113.  Tregear:  127-136. 
Turner:    177.     Stair:   83.    Barton:    39-60. 

•Maine:  Chap.  viii.    Baden-Powell:   1-37,  171  seq,  398-423. 


256  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

^Spieth:  116,191.  Von  den  Steinen :  285.  Schmidt:  316. 
Merker :   28.    Bogoras  :   677. 

^Man:  120,  169.  Jochelson,  1908:  59.  Reports,  vi :  167. 
Keysser:  100.  Sapir,  1911:  i5;id.,  1913:  67;id.,  1915:  355. 
Lowie,  1913 :  225  seq. 

®  Dixon,  1905:  226.  Russell:  194.  Merker:  200.  Selig- 
mann:  118.  Baden-Powell:  172,305.  Routledge:  143.  Mac- 
lean: II,  116.  Junod :  1,  303,  383.  Spinden,  1917:  185. 
Tregear:  122-129.  Kroeber,  1904:  11.  Lowie,  1912:  188. 
Rivers,  1906:  559  seq.  Hodson :  103.  Gurdon :  68,83.  Rad- 
loff:  416.  Jochelson,  1910:  109.  Cranz:  1,247.  Boas,  i[ 
580.     Nelson:   307, 


CHAPTER   X 


ASSOCIATIONS 


PRIMITIVE  society  as  pictured  by  Morg-an  and  his  fol- 
lowers is  an  atomistic  aggregate.  The  tribe  consists 
of  units  fashioned  on  a  single  pattern,  the  sib  concept,  all 
sibs  being  generally  similar  in  function  and  of  equal  dig- 
nity; and  within  each  sib  the  constituent  members  are  on 
one  level  of  democratic  equality.  In  other  words,  if  Mor- 
gan were  right,  individuals  in  lower  cultures  would  differ 
from  one  another  socially  only  as  members  of  this  or  that 
sib.  We  have  already  seen  that  this  scheme  is  inadequate 
because  it  ignores  the  bilateral  family;  but  it  suffers  from 
an  equally  vital  deficiency  in  failing  to  take  into  account 
principles  of  classification  in  no  way  dependent  on  kinship, 
whether  unilateral  or  bilateral.  Primitive  tribes  are  strati- 
fied by  age  distinctions,  by  differences  of  sex  and  of  matri- 
monial status,  and  affiliation  with  one  of  the  resulting 
groups  may  affect  the  individual's  life  far  more  powerfully 
than  his  sib  membership.  Herr  Cunow  was  perhaps  the 
first  theorist  to  recognize  the  part  played  by  age  discrimi- 
nations in  savage  society,  but  it  is  to  the  late  Dr.  Schurtz 
that  we  are  indebted  for  a  systematic  treatise  on  all  associ- 
ations, as  I  propose  to  call  the  social  units  not  based  on  the 
kinship  factor.  Somewhat  later  Professor  Hutton  Web- 
ster in  a  meritorious  compilation  described  practically  the 
same  range  of  data,  but  to  Schurtz  above  all  others  belongs 
the  glory  of  having  saved  ethnologists  from  absorption  in 
the  sib  organization  and  stirred  them  to  a  contemplation  of 
phenomena  that  threatened  to  elude  their  purblind  vision. 

257 


258  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Though  Hke  other  pioneers  he  erred  and  erred  grievously 
in  many  of  his  interpretations,  his  insistence  on  the  theo- 
retical significance  of  associations  must  rank  as  one  of  the 
most  important  points  of  departure  in  the  study  of  primi- 
tive sociology. 

In  trying  to  give  some  notion  of  the  types  of  association 
it  would  be  easy  to  group  the  facts  in  a  series  of  separate 
compartments.  But  these  categories  would  hinder  rather 
than  promote  a  synthetic  understanding  of  social  organiza- 
tion. For  example,  we  might  deal  with  sex  dichotomy 
under  one  head  and  with  age-classes  under  another;  yet 
such  treatment  would  lead  to  all  sorts  of  artificiality.  It  is 
true  that  in  Australia  the  sexes  are  often  rigidly  divided  in 
ceremonies,  but  feminine  disabilities  are  shared  by  the 
younger  males,  so  that  in  one  sense  the  real  division  at  a 
particular  moment  is  into  initiated  males  and  the  remainder 
of  the  tribe.  Elsewhere  there  is  a  tripartite  division  into 
the  married  couples,  the  bachelors,  and  the  spinsters,  so 
that  sex  dichotomy  applies  only  to  the  unmarried.  Again, 
there  is  little  doubt  that  the  bachelors'  dormitory  and  the 
men's  clubhouse  are  often  genetically  connected ;  the  men 
after  marriage  continue  to  resort  for  pastime  or  work  to 
the  dwelling  they  occupied  before  wedlock.  Yet  a  logical 
classification  might  easily  lead  to  a  separation  of  these  re- 
lated institutions.  In  the  present  chapter,  then,  I  will 
rather  select  a  number  of  tribes  from  different  geographical 
areas  and  will  describe  in  each  case  their  social  organiza- 
tion apart  from  sibs  and  families.  In  this  selection  I  shall 
be  guided  partly  by  the  quality  of  available  literature, 
partly  by  the  desirability  of  presenting  at  least  all  the  main 
varieties  of  associational  units.  In  the  following  chapter 
the  treatment  will  be  topical,  embracing  a  number  of  points 
of  theoretical  interest.^ 

Andaman  Islands 

Since  the  Andaman  Islanders  are  sibless,  each  of  their 


ASSOCIATIONS  259 

communities  should,  on  Morgan's  theory,  resolve  itself  into 
an  unorganized  horde  of  individuals,  but  they  perversely 
insist  on  dividing  themselves  into  groups  independent  of  the 
sib  concept  or  indeed  of  relationship  in  any  sense.  In  every 
encampment  there  is  a  triple  arrangement  of  huts  for 
bachelors,  spinsters  and  married  couples,  the  last-mentioned 
group  intervening  between  the  single  men  and  the  single 
women;  and  even  at  the  homes  care  is  taken  to  segregate 
the  unmarried  of  opposite  sex  and  to  have  the  married 
couples  occupy  the  intervening  space.  This  classification  by 
matrimonial  status  and  sex  is  not  equivalent  to  a  simple 
grading  by  age  such  as  will  be  encountered  elsewhere,  since 
even  elderly  widows  will  dwell  in  one  of  the  huts  dedicated 
for  the  use  of  spinsters.  Nevertheless,  indirectly  an  appre- 
ciable correlation  with  the  age  factor  is  effected  since  among 
priiiiitive  tribes  marriage  as  a  rule  is  rarely  deferred  long 
beyond  the  girl's  physiological  maturity,  while  in  the  An- 
daman Islands  the  economic  obstacles  to  early  marriage 
for  the  men  do  not  seem  to  exist.  Indeed,  the  part  played 
in  native  consciousness  by  age  together  with  its  correlates, 
conjugal  and  parental  status,  appears  clearly  from  the  full- 
ness of  the  relevant  vocabulary,  which  permits  an  unam- 
biguous definition  of  any  individual  of  either  sex  with  ref- 
erence to  age  and  matrimonial  condition.  Thus,  an  infant 
is  designated  by  one  term  during  the  first  year,  by  another 
during  its  second,  by  still  another  during  the  third  and 
fourth  years,  while  special  words  define  the  period  from  the 
fourth  till  the  tenth,  and  from  the  eleventh  to  the  twelfth 
years.  The  husband  of  a  few  months'  standing  is  distin- 
guished from  the  man  who  has  been  married  for  only  a 
few  days,  and  the  prospective  is  differentiated  from  the 
actual  father  of  a  child,  corresponding  refinement  of  nom- 
enclature obtaining  for  wives  and  mothers.  Among  the 
socially  most  significant  status  terms,  however,  are  those 
relating  to  the  initiation  of  boys  and  girls  into  the  status 


26o  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

of  full-fledged  members  of  the  tribe,  and  the  relevant  cere- 
monies demand  special  notice. 

Beginning  approximately  with  the  eleventh  year  both 
boys  and  girls  are  subjected  to  a  probationary  period  of 
fasting,  during  which  turtle,  honey,  pork,  and  other  delica- 
cies are  forbidden  food.  Abstention  from  these  luxuries 
is  regarded  as  a  test  of  the  neophyte's  self-denial  and  the 
period  terminates  only  at  the  chief's  suggestion.  The  total 
period  is  trisected,  each  lesser  division  closing  with  a  for- 
mal ceremony  that  absolves  from  specific  restrictions;  in 
this  way  the  taboos  against  eating  turtle,  honey,  and  kid- 
ney-fat of  pig  are  successively  removed. 

When  a  lad  is  permitted  to  break  his  turtle  fast,  the  chief 
boils  a  large  piece  of  turtle-fat,  allows  it  to  cool,  and  then 
pours  it  over  the  novice's  head,  those  present  rubbing  the 
grease  into  his  person,  which  he  may  not  wash  off  until  the 
close  of  the  next  day.  He  is  then  fed  with  turtle  flesh,  led 
to  his  hut  and  ordered  to  sit  cross-legged  in  silence,  a  group 
of  friends  supplying  his  wants  and  keeping  him  awake  by 
chanting.  It  is  believed  that  he  is  now  entering  on  an  im- 
portant epoch  of  his  life  with  its  incident  trials,  hence  there 
is  great  lamentation  by  his  mother  and  female  relatives 
generally.  These  paint  and  otherwise  decorate  his  person, 
and  with  broom-like  bundles  of  leaves  in  his  hands  he  rises 
to  dance  vehemently  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  women's 
time-beating,  while  the  men  look  on  or  participate  in  his 
performance.  When  worn  out  by  his  efforts,  the  youth 
ceases  dancing  and  mingles  with  his  friends  as  a  member 
of  what  might  be  called  the  first  grade  of  majority.  A 
similar  ceremony  raises  girls  to  an  equivalent  rank  in 
society. 

After  this  performance,  subsidiary  taboos,  say,  as  to  the 
eating  of  ray-fish  kidney-fat,  may  be  removed  by  the  chief 
without  further  ceremony  than  the  necessity  of  strict  silence 
on  the  part  of  the  neophyte  when  first  breaking  his  fast. 
It  is  otherwise  with  abstention  from  honey,  which  can  again 


ASSOCIATIONS  261 

be  terminated  only  by  fomial  procedure.  The  chief  helps 
the  novice  to  a  large  portion  of  the  hitherto  talx>oed  deli- 
cacy and  anoints  him  with  honey,  which,  however,  is 
washed  off  in  order  to  guard  against  the  aggression  of  ants. 
Silence  is  again  enjoined,  bait  no  other  prohibitions  are 
recorded.  On  the  following  morning  the  boy,  adorned 
with  leaves,  wades  into  the  sea  and  splashes  water  on  him- 
self and  the  spectators,  also  ducking  his  head,  the  whole 
performance  being  considered  a  magical  protection  against 
snakes.  Young  women  passed  through  a  similar  proce- 
dure, but  only  after  the  birth  of  their  first  child. 

Generally  a  year  after  the  breaking  of  the  turtle  fast 
comes  the  final  ceremony  removing  the  taboo  on  pig  kidney- 
fat.  The  novice's  friends  organize  a  pig  hunt,  a  boar  being 
killed  for  a  youth  and  a  sow-  for  a  young  woman.  The 
candidate  receives  of  the  hitherto  forbidden  food,  the 
melted  fat  of  the  pig  is  poured  over  him,  and  he  is  obliged 
to  hold  his  tongue,  sit  still,  and  remain  awake.  The  next 
morning  he  dances  as  on  the  first  occasion. 

For  comparative  purposes  certain  facts  relating  to  these 
performances  require  attention.  First  of  all,  it  is  clear  that 
in  a  rough  way  the  beginning  of  initiation  coincides  with 
puberty.  More  accurately  the  maturity  of  a  girl  is  indi- 
cated by  her  assuming  a  'flower  name,'  i.e.,  a  narne  derived 
from  a  flower  blossoming  at  the  time  of  her  first  menses, 
this  designation  remaining  in  vogue  till  the  birth  of  a 
child.  Secondly,  while  it  is  not  obligatory  for  a  boy  to 
undergo  the  three  ceremonies  before  marriage,  many  post- 
pone wedlock  until  they  have  passed  through  the  several 
grades  and  it  is  a  matter  of  honor  to  do  so  at  an  early 
opportunity  after  marriage. 

In  viewing  Andaman  society  as  a  whole,  we  find  its  mem- 
bers classed  in  a  numter  of  varying  ways.  The  most  con- 
spicuous groupfmg  is  that  into  married  people,  bachelors, 
and  spinsters,  since  it  has  an  objective  equivalent  in  the 
spatial  arrangement  of  the  camp.    Apart  from  this,  it  would 


262  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

be  exaggeration  to  speak  of  sexual  dichotomy  of  the  tribe. 
Though  such  occupations  as  shaving,  procuring  water  and 
fetching  wood  are  reckoned  as  distinctively  feminine, 
while  hunting,  fishing,  and  canoe-building  devolve  on  the 
men,  this  division  of  labor  does  not  imply  the  separation 
into  practically  distinct  castes  found  in  siome  other  regions. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  assumption  of  a  flower  name  by 
mature  girls  creates  a  definite  demarcation  between  the 
members  of  the  female  sex  who  have  and  who  have  not 
reached  the  age  of  pul:>erty.  The  abundance  of  status  terms 
yields  evidence  of  a  further  classification  of  the  community 
none  the  less  real  because  men  or  women  of  the  same  cate- 
gory are  not  necessarily  bound  together  by  a  common  pur- 
pose but  merely  share  the  same  more  or  less  honorific  ap- 
pellation. Retrospectively,  punctilio  in  this  regard  furnishes 
a  plausible  partial  explanation  of  teknon\TTiy,  as  has  been 
previously  suggested  by  Dr.  Elsie  Clews  Parsons.  Where 
the  status  of  a  person  is  appraised  differently  on  his  becom- 
ing a  parent,  designation  in  terms  of  parenthood  ceases  to 
puzzle.  The  probationary  fasting  period  is  of  course  cor- 
related wnth  the  status  classification.  Roughly  it  has  been 
found  to  coincide  with  the  age  of  adolescence,  but  the  sub- 
divisions of  the  initiatory  period  are  manifestly  no  longer 
correlated  with  any  physiological  condition. 

On  the  whole,  the  Andaman  Islanders  are  less  rigorously 
organized  than  many  other  peoples  will  be  found  to  be; 
nevertheless,  the  segmentation  of  their  communities  accord- 
ing to  definite  principles  not  connected  with  kinship  is  an 
undeniable  fact.^ 

Australia 

While  the  Andaman  Islanders  exhibit  associational 
groups  in  a  sibless  society,  Australia  furnishes  one  instance 
after  another  of  the  coexistence  of  associations  and  sibs, 
the  former  frequently  playing  at  least  as  important  a  role 


ASSOCIATIONS  263 

as  the  latter.  Since  Australian  conditions  have  been  re- 
peatedly described  in  popular  or  semi-popular  books,  a  sum- 
mary treatment  seems  permissible.  Several  features  re- 
corded for  the  Andamans  are  equally  characteristic  of  the 
Australians,  and  in  connection  with  certain  additional  prin- 
ciples, such  as  the  hegemony  of  old  men  and  a  sense  of 
feminine  disabilities,  they  have  produced  a  more  conspicu- 
ous division  of  society  along  associational  lines. 

First  of  all,  the  matter  of  sex  dominates  social  activity  in 
a  distinctive  way  among  nearly  all  Australian  tril^es.  To 
be  born  a  girl  not  merely  determines  industrial  and  eco- 
nomic employment,  nor  is  the  import  of  womanhood  ex- 
hausted by  the  theory  of  feminine  inferiority.  The  Kirgiz 
women,  as  already  shown,  are  both  practically  subordinate 
and  theoretically  inferior  to  men,  yet  that  does  not  bar 
them  from  tribal  festivities,  where  they  participate  on  prac- 
tically equal  terms.  But  to  the  Australian  woman  the  pub- 
lic activities  of  the  male  are  largely  forbidden  mysteries 
shrouded  in  fabulous  tales  ad  vinliercm.  It  is  true  that 
her  disabilities  are  shared  by  the  uninitiated  lads,  but  since 
initiation  is  each  male's  birthright  there  is  after  all  genuine 
sex  dichotomy:  the  men  form  a  secret  society  for  which 
every  woman  is  ineligible.  This  fact  must  be  collated  with 
the  data  on  sib  affiliation.  Sex  dichotomy  is  bound  to 
rend  asunder  the  bond  that  might  conceivably  unite  all  male 
and  female  members  of  the  sib,  for  by  grouping  all  the  men 
in  a  tribal  association  it  supplants  sib  solidarity  with  what 
Professor  Webster  properly  calls  'sexual  solidarity.'  An 
Emu  man  who  constantly  associates  in  ritualistic  perform- 
ances and  political  assemblies  with  Eagle-hawk,  Bat,  Crow 
and  Frog  men  will  develop  for  men  of  all  sibs  a  sentiment 
of  class  consciousness  that  is  simply  impossible  under  the 
circumstances  between  men  and  women  of  the  Emu  sib. 
True,  all  Emu  individuals  must  abstain  wholly  or  largely 
from  the  flesh  of  their  totem,  but  parallel  dietary  restric- 
tions hold  for  women  as  women.     The  Yualaroi,  according 


264  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

to  Howitt,  prevent  females  from  eating  emu  and  their  eggs; 
and  among  the  central  tribes  no  woman,  irrespective  of  her 
sib,  may  eat  a  brown  hawk.  Thus,  even  in  matters  of 
food,  sex  figures  as  a  rival  of  the  sib  motive :  the  fact  that 
an  individual  is  a  woman  is  not  less  significant  than  that 
she  belongs  to  a  certain  totem  group. 

But  while  sex  is  socially  far  more  important  in  Australia 
than  among  the  Andaman  Islanders,  age  and  status  also 
play  their  part.  The  Kariera  and  Kurnai  are  typical  in 
segregating  the  bachelors  from  the  rest  of  the  camp,  though 
there  is  no  corresponding  separation  of  spinsters.  Gen- 
erally, too,  there  is  great  nicety  in  distinguishing  the  stages 
of  social  progress.  The  Kurnai  infant  is  called  by  one 
term,  the  boy  of  eight  or  nine  by  another,  while  the  uniniti- 
ated youth  living  with  his  parents,  the  novice,  the  bachelor, 
and  the  mature  paterfamilias  are  each  designated  by  a  dis- 
tinct term.  Elsewhere  the  several  steps  of  the  initiation 
are  carefully  discriminated.  A  noteworthy  trait  is  the  re- 
laxation of  the  food  taboos  for  old  women. 

The  initiation  ceremonies  of  the  Australians  resemble 
those  of  the  Andaman  Islanders  in  being  performed  about 
the  time  of  puberty,  but  otherwise  the  differences  are  rather 
remarkable.  Among  the  Andaman  Islanders  every  one  un- 
dergoes the  period  of  probationary  fasting  with  its  success- 
ive grades  of  freedom  from  dietary  taboos,  but  the  per- 
formances are  not  reckoned  an  essential  preliminary  to 
marriage.  In  Australia,  however,  no  one  is  allowed  to  have 
a  wife  until  he  has  passed  through  the  corresponding  rites; 
and  in  the  central  region  there  is  even  an  analogous  nubility 
rite  for  the  females.  Among  the  Andaman  Islanders  the 
initiation  rites  are  not  conceived  as  mysteries  never  tO'  be 
revealed  to  women,  as  they  are  in  most  Australian  tribes. 
In  other  words,  the  Australian  initiation  is  definitely  a  rite 
preparatory  for  matrimony  and  assertive  of  masculine 
ascendancy;  even  where  the  nubility  ceremony  occurs  it  is 
conducted  by  men  in  the  ]")resence  of  male  spectators,  while 


ASSOCIATIONS  265 

women  are  almost  always  barred  from  the  more  important 
proceedings  of  the  boys'  initiation.  Finally,  the  character 
of  the  initiation  itself  is  different.  There  are  tribes  like 
the  Kariera  who  content  themselves  with  decorating  the 
neophyte  in  a  conventional  manner,  say,  by  tying  a  string 
tightly  round  each  biceps.  But  far  more  commonly  the 
Australians  promote  lads  to  the  status  of  manhood  by  an 
infinitely  more  severe  ordeal,  the  knocking  out  of  a  tooth 
being  characteristic  of  one  area,  circumcision  and  subin- 
cision  (additional  operation  on  the  genital  organ)  of  an- 
other. In  still  another  region  the  youths  ready  for  initiation 
are  segregated  in  a  lonely  spot,  where  they  receive  inade- 
quate food  and  are  severely  cuffed  and  kicked  by  the  old 
men,  a  trial  to  be  borne  without  wincing;  besides  which 
they  are  compelled  to  cut  and  roll  heavy  logs  or  perform 
other  kinds  of  hard  labor.  When  they  have  passed  their 
examination  satisfactorily,  the  old  men  in  charge  give  to 
each  novice  a  sacred  stick  ('bull-roarer')  to  be  secreted  in 
a  safe  place.  In  short,  formally  the  Australian  initiation 
is  a  severe  test  of  the  adolescent's  self-control.  But  sub- 
stantially, too,  it  is  a  far  more  solemn  affair  than  that  of 
the  Andamans.  It  is  a  genuine  propaedeutic  course  in  tribal 
knowledge  and  ethics  :  the  neophyte  is  exhorted  to  obey  im- 
plicitly the  teachings  of  his  elders  and  to  keep  mum  in  the 
presence  of  the  uninitiate  on  the  arcana  divulged  to  him; 
he  is  told  what  food  is  tabooed  to  him  and  also  gets  prac- 
tice in  finding  a  living  by  his  own  efforts. 

One  detail  associated  with  the  Australian  initiation 
merits  special  mention.  Among  the  secrets  imparted  to  the 
neophyte  is  the  real  cause  of  a  curious  buzzing  noise  that 
has  alarmed  him  prior  to  initiation  and  which  the  women 
and  children  are  taught  to  regard  as  the  voice  of  a  spirit 
presiding  over  the  ritual  of  initiation.  He  now  learns  that 
it  is  produced  simply  by  whirling  a  bull-roarer,  i.e.,  a  flat 
stick  or  stone  slab,  through  the  air  at  the  end  of  a  string. 
Strangely  enough,  the  greatest  stress  is  laid  on  the  neces- 


266  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

sity  of  keeping  the  women  in  ignorance  of  the  true  nature 
of  the  bull-roarer,  which  they  are  never  permitted  to  view. 
Indeed,  formerly  some  tribes  had  the  rule  that  if  a  man 
showed  a  bull-roarer  to  a  woman,  both  must  be  punished 
by  death.  The  reason  for  now  singling  out  this  feature 
will  appear  later.  In  exceptional  tribes  the  bull-roarer  is 
indeed  associated  with  initiation  but  no  attempt  is  made  to 
conceal  it  from  the  female  sex. 

Initiation,  while  qualifying  a  youth  for  marriage  and 
other  social  functions,  by  no  means  raises  him  to  a  status 
of  equality  with  the  older  men.  His  place  in  society  is 
indeed  a  distinctly  humble  one  for  many  years  to  come ; 
he  has  nothing  to  say  in  affairs  of  political  moment  and 
even  in  the  matter  of  food  he  will  be  well  along  in  years 
before  he  is  freed  from  the  last  restrictions.  These  are  the 
facts  which  Schurtz  and,  before  him,  Cunow  rightly  in- 
sisted upon  as  proving  that  apart  from  the  sib  organization 
the  Australians  are  subdivided  into  social  units  not  less 
significant  in  the  individual's  life.  Every  person  belongs 
from  birth  to  the  male  or  the  female  sex  moiety,  to  the 
caste  of  prerogative  or  of  disabilities;  every  person  in  the 
course  of  his  life  progresses  through  a  series  of  social  steps, 
at  each  of  which  his  behavior  must  conform  to  a  conven- 
tional pattern.  A  Warramunga  man  may  belong  to  the 
Wild-cat  sib  and  be  free  to  eat  emu  flesh  so  far  as  any  sib 
regulation  goes ;  he  must  nevertheless  abstain  from  emu 
food  till  he  is  at  least  a  middle-aged  man.  He  may  be  of 
either  moiety  and  of  any  sib  or  family  whatsoever,  but  if 
he  is  an  initiated  bachelor  he  will  live  divorced  from  his 
family,  sib  and  moiety  in  the  company  of  the  other  bache- 
lors of  the  encampment.  Thus,  in  everyday  activity  the 
joint  influence  of  sex  and  age  may  well  outweigh  that  of 
the  kinship  groups. 

There  is  one  feature  of  Australian  organization  which  I 
have  advisedly  refrained  from  mentioning  until  the  pres- 
ent.  Over  a  large  section  of  the  island  continent  there  holds 


ASSOCIATIONS  267 

sway  what  is  known  as  the  class  system,  which  apjjcars  in  a 
four-class  and  an  eight-class  variety.  For  our  purposes 
consideration  of  the  former  will  suffice.  I  have  already 
mentioned  the  occurrence  of  the  dual  organization  in  Aus- 
tralia. Frequently  the  moieties  are  subdivided  each  into 
two  classes,  making  four  altogether  in  the  tribe.  Until 
recently  our  authorities  generally  represented  the  four 
classes  as  matrimonial  groups,  the  principle  on  which  they 
regulated  marriage  being  as  follows.  Taking  the  patrilineal 
Kariera  for  illustration,  we  may  designate  their  exogamous 
moieties  as  A  and  B,  the  former  composed  of  classes  i  and 
2,  the  latter  of  classes  3  and  4,  numbers  being  substituted 
for  the  phoneticall)'?  difficult  native  names.  Then  accord- 
ing to  Kariera  law  a  member  of  i  cannot  marry  into  either 
his  own  class  or  into  2  because  both  are  divisions  of  his 
moiety.  But  neither  may  he  marry  into  3 ;  he  is  restricted 
by  the  four-class  system  to  one  and  only  one  class  in  the 
choice  of  a  mate,  viz.,  4.  However,  it  may  be  asked  by 
what  method  an  individual's  class  affiliation  is  determined, 
and  here  develops  the  most  curious  part  of  the  scheme. 
The  child  of  a  man  of  class  i  must  belong  to  its  father's 
moiety  because  descent  among  the  Kariera  is  patrilineal ; 
nevertheless  it  cannot  belong  to  his  class,  but  must  enter 
the  complementary  class,  to  wit,  2.  Correspondingly,  when 
a  man  of  4  marries  a  woman  of  i,  the  child  is  3  since  it 
must  belong  to  his  moiety  and  cannot  belong  to  his  class. 
If  instead  of  the  Kariera  some  matrilineal  four-class  tribe 
were  taken,  a  corresponding  principle  would  apply;  every 
child  there  belongs  to  the  mother's  moiety  and  to  that  class 
in  her  moiety  which  is  complementary  to  her  own.  An 
interesting  trait  of  this  system  is  the  fellowship  of  grand- 
parent and  grandchild  in  the  same  class.  Taking  the 
Kariera,  a  man  of  class  i  not  only  has  children  of  class  2 
but  also  a  father  of  that  class  since  father  and  son  belong 
to  the  same  moiety,  though  never  to  the  same  class.  Thus, 
father's  father  and  son's  son  are  fellow-members. 


268  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

I  said  above  that  this  scheme  of  Austrahan  marriage 
systems  is  the  one  followed  until  recent  years  because  at 
present  Mr.  Brown's  researches  indicate  that  while  the  four- 
class  scheme  is  formally  correct  it  does  not  penetrate  to 
the  core  of  the  phenomena.  For,  as  had  already  been  clear 
from  earlier  accounts,  though  any  one  class  might  marry 
only  into  one  of  the  three  remaining  classes  it  is  not  per- 
missible for  any  member  of  class  i  to  marry  any  individual 
of  4.  there  being  still  further  restrictions.  Mr.  Brown 
showed  that  the  essence  of  the  arrangement  was  simply 
that  a  man  must  marry  a  maternal  uncle's  daughter  (or  a 
woman  so  designated  in  the  aboriginal  nomenclature)  and 
no  one  else.  The  four-class  scheme  fits  the  data  merely 
because  the  possible  mates  as  just  defined  are  bound  to 
belong  to  the  opposite  moiety  and  to  the  class  different 
from  the  prepotent  parent's.  But  in  reality  marriage  is 
regulated  by  consanguinity  alone,  by  a  particular  kind  of 
cross-cousin  relationship,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  I 
have  mentioned  the  relevant  facts  merely  under  the  caption 
of  preferential  mating. 

Mr.  Brown's  interpretation  explains  admirably  why  the 
supposedly  marriage-regulating  classes  really  fail  to  deter- 
mine the  union  of  individuals  since  these  depend  on  the 
cross-cousin  relationship.  But  wnth  their  matrimonial  occu- 
pation gone  it  is  not  easy  to  understand  what  may  be  the 
functions  of  the  classes.  That  they  exist  as  social  units  of 
some  sort,  is  attested  by  a  dozen  observers,  and  often  they 
have  definite  appellations  where  the  moieties  have  none. 
Some  scholars  have  suggested  that  they  are  merely  halves 
of  moieties,  but  this  is  an  utterly  ridiculous  assumption, 
for  in  that  case  they  would  follow  the  same  rule  of  descent 
instead  of  the  curiously  indirect  one  they  do. 

Although  I  am  not  acquainted  with  any  fully  satisfac- 
tory theory  of  the  Australian  classes,  Cunow's  contribution 
must  be  cited  as  a  suggestive  addition  to  the  far  from  ample 
stock  of  original  ideas  relating  to  the  theory  of  social  or- 


ASSOCIATIONS  269 

g'anization.  Ciinow  assumes  that  the  classes  represent  age- 
strata  and  are  associated  with  the  rule  that  only  meml)ers 
of  the  same  stratum  are  potential  mates,  while  the  moieties 
were  originally  two  distinct  but  intermarrying  local  groups. 
Then,  since  a  child  cannot  belong  to  the  same  age-group  as 
its  parents  it  is  intelligible  why  the  rule  of  class  descent  is 
of  the  observed  anomalous  type :  the  child  is  of  the  par- 
ent's moiety  but  not  of  his  (or  her)  class  because  the  class 
scheme  is  at  bottom  precisely  a  method  for  differentiating 
age. 

Cunow's  theory  suffers  from  a  number  of  difficulties.  If 
the  classes  are  age-grades,  class  affiliation  should  of  course 
vary  with  age,  yet  as  a  matter  of  fact  each  Australian  be- 
longs to  his  class  from  birth  until  death.  Cunow  assumes 
that  affiliation  was  made  immutable  to  prevent  a  man's 
being  married  to  two  wives  of  distinct  grades.  According 
to  his  scheme  there  are  three  grades,  that  of  childhood,  that 
of  an  initiate,  and  that  of  an  old  person,  i.e.,  of  one  who  has 
a  child  in  the  group  of  initiates.  When  Cunow  insists  that 
only  age-mates  were  permitted  to  marry,  he  means  that 
husband  and  wife  must  both  belong  either  to  the  grade  of 
initiates  or  to  that  of  elders.  Now  on  this  assumption  it 
may  evidently  happen  that  a  man  after  ten  or  fifteen  years 
of  wedlock  takes  a  second  wife  who  will  be  of  his  own 
and  the  first  wife's  grade  but  who  will  remain  in  that  grade 
after  her  husband  and  her  fellow- wife  have  attained  higher 
status.  That  is,  she  will  be  of  like  status  with  her  fellow- 
wife's  eldest  son.  In  order  to  prevent  this  condition,  Cunow 
argues,  it  w^as  necessary  to  render  the  class  names  perma- 
nent like  the  sib  designations.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
reasoning  is  ingenious,  but  nothing  indicates  that  it  rests 
on  more  than  sheer  conjecture. 

Furthermore,  since  there  are  only  four  class  names  in- 
stead of  the  six  demanded  by  the  tripartite  organization  of 
each  moiety,  Cunow  is  driven  to  assume  that  the  members 
of  alternate  generations  designated  by  the  same  class  name 


270  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

are  not  really  members  of  the  same  class  but  of  distinct 
classes  which  merely  for  convenience'  sake  are  similarly 
named.  This  again  seems  an  arbitrary  interpretation. 
Cunow  himself  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  many 
Australian  kinship  nomenclatures  grandparent  and  grand- 
child are  designated  by  one  term  used  reciprocally ;  to  him 
this  is  an  inexplicable  phenomenon,  which,  however,  readily 
suggested  the  application  of  the  same  class  name  to  grand- 
parent and  grandchild.  But  another  interpretation  is  pos- 
sible. Grandparent  and  grandchild  may  be  designated  by 
one  term  precisely  because  by  the  four-class  scheme  they  are 
what  they  are  ostensibly,  members  of  one  and  the  same 
class,  in  which  case  classes  and  age-grades  would  not  coin- 
cide. Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  its  drawbacks  Cunow's 
theory  furnishes  so  simple  an  interpretation  of  the  enig- 
matical feature  of  class  descent  that  we  may  cling  to  its 
core  in  the  hope  that  some  day  the  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  accepting  it  will  be  removed. 

Summing  up  the  Australian  situation  irrespective  of  all 
h3^potheses,  we  find  that  in  most  tribes  every  individual  is 
simultaneously  a  member  of  a  variety  of  social  units.  He 
is  born  into  a  sex,  a  moiety,  a  totem  sib  and  a  class,  with 
all  of  which  his  affiliation  is  permanent ;  he  is  also  born 
into  a  certain  status  from  which  he  advances  through  a 
special  ceremony  into  that  of  maturity,  and  by  less  per- 
ceptible stages  into  that  of  a  full-fledged  elder.  At  any 
one  period  of  his  life  his  duties  and  privileges  may  depend 
as  much  on  his  associational  as  on  his  kinship  connections.^ 

Masai 

While  among  the  Australians  sibs  and  associations  are 
perhaps  of  equal  importance,  the  former  are  definitely  less 
significant  in  Masai  society.  Not  that  it  is  possible  to 
ignore  them.  In  earlier  times  they  regulated  marriage, 
and  at  present  religious  functions  and  specific  cattle  brands 


ASSOCIATIONS  271 

are  connected  with  the  major  or  lesser  kinship  groups. 
Moreover,  chiefs  and  medicinemen  are  recruited  exclusively 
from  the  paramount  section  of  a  single  sib.  Nevertheless 
the  activities  dependent  on  affiliation  with  the  sib  are 
meager  compared  with  those  affected  by  membership  in 
other  units. 

First  of  all,  there  is  a  spatial  separation  of  the  bachelors 
and  their  paramours,  the  immature  girls,  from  the  rest  of 
the  community  (see  p.  50).  This  condition  is  strikingly 
different  from  that  of  the  Andaman  Islanders,  where  bache- 
lors and  spinsters  are  sedulously  segregated  by  the  inter- 
position of  married  couples. 

Secondly,  males  and  females  are  definitely  grouped  ac- 
cording to  status.  As  among  the  Australians,  every  male 
is  subjected  to  a  puberty  ordeal  (circumcision),  through 
which  he  attains  the  position  of  a  warrior.  During  the 
period  of  initiation  and  until  the  wound  is  healed  he  ranks 
no  longer  as  a  boy  but  as  a  neophyte  (literally,  'recluse'), 
while  for  the  first  two  years  following  he  is  designated  as 
an  apprentice  ('shaved  one').  Until  28  or  30  he  figures 
as  a  full-fledged  brave,  whereupon  he  marries,  leaving  the 
bachelors'  kraal  and  assuming  for  the  remainder  of  his 
life  the  dignity  of  an  elder.  Since  the  initiation  and  re- 
cruiting periods  are  obviously  preparatory,  we  need  recog- 
nize only  three  stages  for  males,  that  of  boy,  of  warrior, 
and  of  elder,  the  bachelor  braves  playing  the  most  promi- 
nent role  among  this  w^arlike  people.  As  an  equivalent  of 
the  boys'  circumcision  the  girls  undergo  clitoridectomy  after 
the  first  menses  and  are  subsequently  known  as  novices  until 
the  healing  of  the  wound.  Then  they  maintain  a  distinct 
rank  until  the  menopause,  whereupon  a  new  word  defines 
their  status,  which  only  alters  with  the  blanching  of  the 
hair.  Unrelated  persons  of  either  sex  address  each  other 
by  terms  dependent  on  their  relative  status. 

With  these  stages  there  are  linked  definite  usages.  Mar- 
ried women  are  distinguished  from  girls  by  iron  necklaces 


2J2  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

and  ear-rings ;  indeed,  without  the  latter  no  wife  would  dare 
confront  her  husband.  They  are  also  recognizable  by  their 
long  garments.  Boys  and  girls  put  increasingly  large  blocks 
of  wood  into  their  ears,  while  the  bachelors  and  elders  wear 
chain  ear-rings  and  bracelets.  After  circumcision  the 
bachelors  carry  the  sword,  spear,  club  and  shield  distinctive 
of  their  rank,  also  donning  a  special  cap,  ostrich- feather 
headdress,  cape,  anklets,  arm-clamp,  calfskin  garment,  and 
a  piece  of  goat's  skin  for  the  waist.  They  plait  their  hair, 
subsist  entirely  on  meat,  milk  and  blood,  and  must  abstain 
from  intoxicants.  Before  recovery  from  circumcision  the 
novices  mimic  women  as  to  dress  and  earrings,  and  if  they 
have  stood  the  ordeal  without  flinching  they  are  permitted 
to  shoot  small  birds  and  wear  them  on  the  head. 

In  addition  to  the  dichotomous  division  of  society  into 
the  inmates  of  the  warriors'  kraal  and  the  rest  of  the  settle- 
ment and  the  essential  trisection  of  the  male  population  by 
status  there  are  still  other  groupings.  It  is  obvious  that 
the  tripartite  organization  of  the  males  links  together  in  a 
single  grade  the  benedict  of  thirty  and  of  eighty.  A  sug- 
gestive subdivision  of  this  step  has  taken  place,  those  elders 
having  circumcised  children  being  distinguished  by  the 
privilege  of  wearing  a  certain  kind  of  ear-ring.  However, 
it  does  not  appear  that  elders  of  this  type  are  united  by  any 
feeling  of  solidarity.  There  is  distinction  among  elders, 
inasmuch  as  owners  of  large  herds  who  have  many  children 
may  wear  an  arm-ring  of  elephant's  tusk  or  buffalo  horn  as 
a  badge  of  affluence.  This  ill-defined  criterion,  however, 
has  also  failed  to  produce  a  determinate  social  group  and 
remains  interesting  mainly  as  demonstrating  the  variety  of 
classificatory  devices  to  which  the  natives  resort.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  is  a  division  based  on  the  period  of  initia- 
tion that  is  of  far-reaching  significance.  The  circumcision 
rite  not  merely  separates  the  categories  of  boy  and  war- 
rior but  underlies  a  far  more  refined  classification  of  so- 
ciety. 


ASSOCIATIONS  273 

All  boys  circumcised  during  the  same  quadrennium  be- 
long to  the  same  'age.'  There  follows  a  period  of  three 
and  a  half  years  during  which  no  initiation  takes  place. 
After  this  interval  comes  another  quadrennium  during 
which  boys  are  circumcised.  Reckoning  from  an  apparently 
arbitrary  or  at  least  unknown  starting-point,  the  Masai 
designate  the  individuals  circumcised  during  one  quadren- 
nium as  of  the  'right-handed'  circumcision,  those  of  the 
subsequent  quadrennium  being  'left-handed.'  That  is,  the 
age-classes  are  not  dextral  or  sinistral  relatively  to  each 
other,  but  absolutely  so  by  virtue  of  their  position  with  ref- 
erence to  the  point  of  departure.  A  right-handed  age  and 
the  immediately  following  left-handed  age  are  said  to  con- 
stitute a  'generation.'  The  processes  by  which  one  age- 
class  relieves  its  predecessor  as  representative  of  the  war- 
rior grade  and  by  which  correlated  classes  are  welded  into 
a  generation  must  be  described  in  some  detail. 

Immediately  after  initiation  and  restoration  to  health  the 
apprentices  find  themselves  in  a  peculiar  position  with  ref- 
erence to  the  full-fledged  warriors.  In  order  to  figure  as 
genuine  braves  the  tyros  must  first  secure  a  name  for  their 
class,  a  distinctive  design  for  the  decoration  of  their  shields. 
and  a  separate  kraal.  About  the  former  there  is  no  special 
difficulty  since  an  appellation  is  bestowed  by  the  headman 
of  the  tribe  in  return  for  a  herd  of  cattle ;  but  the  shield 
pattern  is  not  so  readily  acquired.  Black  figures  for  the 
purpose  are  selected  by  the  most  eminent  elder,  but  it  is  the 
red  coloring  of  the  shield  that  is  held  as  really  characteristic 
of  a  warrior's  dignity.  No  sooner,  however,  have  the 
novices  attempted  to  paint  their  shields  red  and  to  con- 
struct a  camp  than  the  warriors  swoop  down  upon  them, 
attacking  the  new^  establishment,  and  if  possible  efface  the 
paint.  If  the  older  men  are  victorious,  the  recruits  must 
bide  their  chance,  improving  the  meantime  wnth  raids 
against  hostile  tribes.  If  they  exhibit  conspicuous  prowess 
in  such  enterprises,  the  warriors  may  grace fulh-  assent  to 


274  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

recognize  them  as  their  peers;  otherwise  the  youths  must 
conquer  opposition  by  force.  When  they  finally  succeed, 
there  are  then  two  distinct  bachelors'  kraals  in  the  district, 
though  united  in  all  martial  undertakings.  But  this  is  an 
anomalous  and  transitional  condition  according  to  native 
standards.  Soon  the  older  warriors  decide  on  their  de- 
parture, leave  singly  after  an  appropriate  feast,  marry, 
and  settle  down  in  individual  homes.  When  all  members 
of  the  age-class  have  married  and  discarded  the  bache- 
lors' kraal,  they  collectively  assume  the  rank  of  elders, 
leaving  their  successors  in  sole  possession  of  the  warrior's 
estate. 

The  significant  thing  in  all  this  is  that  simultaneous  initi- 
ation creates  ties  transcending  the  bonds  due  to  equal 
status.  Though  two  age-classes  may  temporarily  share  the 
degree  of  bachelor,  they  remain  distinct  units.  Similarly, 
the  new  group  of  married  men  is  by  no  means  simply 
merged  in  a  society  of  elders.  The  only  close  tie,  formed 
at  a  much  later  period,  is  between  the  dextral  and  sinistral 
classes  of  a  couple,  which  are  formally  united  into  a  'gen- 
eration,' receive  a  common  name  and  adopt  a  distinctive 
arrow  brand.  But  before  and  after  this  union  the  age- 
class  preserves  its  name  and  individuality  and  determines 
its  members'  actions.  It  is,  above  all,  an  agency  regulating 
sex  relations.  Girls  initiated  during  a  certain  quadrennium 
are  reckoned  as  belonging  to  the  age-class  of  the  boys  cir- 
cumcised during  that  period ;  and  no  Masai  is  permitted  to 
have  sexual  relations  with  a  woman  of  his  father's  class. 
On  the  other  hand,  fornication  with  a  woman  of  one's 
own  class  is  not  considered  an  offense,  so  that  widows  or 
divorced  women  may  consort  with  their  husband's  fellow- 
members.  A  visitor  from  another  district  at  once  enters 
the  kraal  of  an  age-mate,  who  withdraws  from  the  hut, 
leaving  his  guest  to  sleep  with  his  wife.  In  this  there  is 
no  choice,  for  an  unobliging  host  incurs  the  curse  of  his 
age-mates.    A  wife  beaten  by  her  husband  may  seek  refuge 


ASSOCIATIONS  275 

with  one  of  his  age-mates,  and  thereafter  the  husband  will 
let  her  in  peace  lest  he  be  cursed  by  his  class. 

On  the  strength  of  our  data  it  is  fair  to  say  that  the 
group  of  elders  does  not  form  a  firmly  knit  unit  but  that 
all  the  social  solidarity  within  that  status  is  attached  to  the 
smaller  associations  described,  the  generation  and  particu- 
larly the  age-class.  Reverting  in  conclusion  to  a  compari- 
son of  the  Masai  associations  with  their  sib  organization, 
the  initial  appraisal  of  their  relative  importance  seems  fully 
vindicated.  Even  a  feature  so  peculiarly  typical  of  the  sib 
as  its  marriage-regulating  function  is  here  more  promi- 
nently connected  with  the  age-class.  If  from  Masai  com- 
munities the  division  into  sibs  were  eliminated,  an  ample 
residue  of  social  relations  would  still  obtrude  itself  on  our 
notice ;  but  without  the  bachelors'  kraal,  the  initiatory  sub- 
grades,  and  the  age-classes,  Masai  society  would  assume  an 
aspect  of  baldness  and  drab  monotony.* 

Banks  Islands 

In  the  Banks  Islands,  as  among  the  Masai,  there  is  a  sib 
structure  that  is  overshadowed  by  associational  units  but 
these  vary  fundamentally  in  the  two  areas ;  indeed,  the 
Melanesians  introduce  us  to  entirely  novel  principles  of 
aggregation.  Nevertheless,  one  feature  that  arrested  our 
attention  in  surveying  the  Australian  field  recurs  in  the 
Banks  Islands  in  a  still  more  conspicuous  form.  The  cleav- 
age of  society  into  sex  moieties  here  attains  its  maximum 
intensity.  Not  only  are  women  debarred  from  public  sol- 
emnities, but  even  in  everyday  life  there  is  a  well-nigh  com- 
plete dichotomy.  Men  neither  eat  nor  sleep  with  their 
wives  but  in  a  separate  establishment,  which  boys  try  to 
enter  at  the  earliest  opportunity.  Hence  the  males,  as  in 
Australia,  constitute  a  sort  of  tribal  secret  organization. 
Yet  there  is  an  all-important  difference :  admission  in  no 
way  depends  on  puberty,  but  mayj  occur  at  any  age;  and 


276  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

it  is  secured  not  through  an  ordeal  involving  personal  dis- 
figurement or  bodily  mortification  but  by  the  payment  of  a 
fee.  Further,  the  men's  society  is  not  a  single  body  or  at 
best  one  in  which  the  older  men  are  set  off  from  the 
younger  initiates  by  more  or  less  imperceptible  degrees  of 
dignity,  but  comprises  an  hierarchically  graded  series  of 
divisions. 

The  tangible  manifestation  of  masculine  exclusiveness  is 
the  village  clubhouse,  a  lounging-place  and  refectory  by 
day  and  a  dormitory  by  night.  The  house  is  subdivided 
into  a  varying  number  of  compartments  of  successively 
higher  rank,  each  with  its  own  oven  as  a  rallying-place  for 
members  of  equal  degree.  Failure  to  join  means  remaining 
a  nonentity  in  point  of  social  estimation;  hence,  while 
admission  may  be  deferred,  it  always  occurs  sooner  or 
later.  "If  a  man  cannot  enter  the  Sukzve  (club)  he  has  to 
feed  with  women  and  this  may  sometimes  so  excite  the 
pity  of  a  friend  that  he  may  undertake  to  act  as  intro- 
ducer, knowing  that  he  will  thereby  have  to  spend  a  large 
sum  of  money."  In  the  lower  ranks  the  introducer,  often 
the  candidate's  maternal  uncle,  defrays  most  of  the  ex- 
penses; in  the  higher  degrees  the  charges  devolve  on  the 
novice,  his  kindred  and  friends.  The  act  of  initiation  con- 
sists in  the  ceremonial  eating  of  food  by  the  tyro's  new 
messmates ;  but  all  the  club  members  regardless  of  rank 
seem  to  profit  by  his  payments. 

As  a  respectable  place  in  the  community  is  impossible 
without  club  affiliation,  so  a  gain  in  prestige  is  directly 
proportionate  to  advancement  in  the  society,  which  invari- 
ably demands  increasingly  greater  pecuniary  sacrifices. 
TIence  the  man  who  has  climbed  to  the  highest  rung  of  the 
ladder  is  quite  exceptional,  ranks  as  a  chief  in  real  life, 
and  figures  as  the  hero  of  legend.  He  is  then  in  a  position 
to  retrieve  with  interest  the  fortune  s])ent  in  achieving  emi- 
nence, for  he  can  wring  exorbitant  fees  from  subsequent 
aspirants  to  honor.  The  common  herd  never  dream  of 
such  eminence;  though  they  enter  the  club  as  boys,  they 


ASSOCIATIONS  277 

will  be  lucky  to  rise  to  the  middle  degrees  of  the  organiza- 
tion. It  is  true  that  though  the  divisions  are  definitely 
localized  in  the  clubhouse,  each  invested  with  a  clearly 
defined  relative  rank,  there  is  an  abstract  possibility  of 
leaping  at  once  to  a  high  station  in  the  society.  But  prac- 
tically the  fees  would  be  too  extravagant  to  convert  theory 
into  reality,  and  all  that  is  ever  attempted  is  to  dispense 
with  entrance  into  some  of  the  very  lowest  compartments, 
which  have  accordingly  fallen  into  decay  in  some  of  the 
villages.  Besides,  even  the  theoretical  chance  has  one  limi- 
tation :  in  order  to  progress  beyond  a  certain  point  in  the 
club  a  man  must  belong  to  another  organization  of  a  related 
though  distinct  order  that  will  be  treated  below. 

The  club  of  the  Banks  Islander  is  seen  to  be  bound  up 
with  property  rights.  It  is  only  the  man  of  wealth  who 
can  reach  the  highest  degrees  and  thus  acquire  prestige. 
Yet  the  aboriginal  conception  is  not  that  of  avariciously 
hoarding  wealth  but  rather  of  displaying  one's  greatness  by 
exhibiting  contempt  for  property.  So  a  man  of  the  loftiest 
status  in  the  club  may  still  promote  his  renown  by  providing 
the  lavish  entertainment  associated  with  certain  festivals ; 
nay,  a  suggestion  of  niggardliness  on  these  occasions  would 
go  far  to  destroy  his  influence. 

The  several  grades  of  the  club  were  anciently  marked  off 
with  such  rigor  that  to  enter  a  compartment  higher  than 
one's  own  was  to  incur  certain  death.  Yet  there  is  very 
little  individuality  about  the  various  steps.  They  have  their 
distinctive  masks  or  hats,  some  use  peculiar  pudding-knives, 
and  only  in  the  higher  degrees  are  members  allowed  to 
drink  the  native  stimulant,  kava.  But  it  is  difficult  to  say 
in  what  way  the  functions  and  privileges  of  adjoining  de- 
grees differed.  The  essential  idea  seems  to  have  been 
simply  that  by  making  an  additional  sacrifice  for  a  new 
initiation  a  member  was  entitled  to  higher  honor,  which  fact 
was  expressed  in  visible  terms  by  the  assignment  of  a 
spatially  distinct  compartment. 


^78  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

The  significant  traits  of  the  Banks  Island  system  at  once 
stand  out  in  rehef  when  we  compare  it  with  that  of  the 
Masai.  The  East  African  scheme  is  thoroughly  demo- 
cratic, that  of  Melanesia  is  an  essentially  timocratic  one. 
Every  Masai  is  bound  to  advance  from  boyhood  to  bache- 
lorhood and  from  bachelorhood  to  the  elder's  estate,  and 
the  differentiation  of  age-classes  among  elders  carries  with 
it  no  suggestion  of  superior  and  inferior  caste ;  an  outward 
emblem  for  prolific  and  wealthy  elders  has  been  reported, 
but  the  practical  consequences  of  this  distinction  are  negli- 
gible. It  is  of  course  part  of  this  generally  democratic  con- 
ception that  status  should  be  attained  collectively  by  a 
group  of  approximate  coevals.  In  the  Banks  Islands  the 
exaction  of  increasingly  prohibitive  admission  fees  inevit- 
ably prevents  the  steps  from  being  gained  with  equal 
rapidity  by  age-mates.  At  every  stage  beyond  the  very 
lowest  perhaps  we  must  be  prepared  to  encounter  a  com- 
mensality  of  varying  years  and  vastly  different  social  pros- 
pects. Seated  round  one  oven  and  for  the  time  being  on  a 
par  in  the  public  eye  are  the  elderly  laggard  whose  strait- 
ened circumstances  will  keep  him  from  transcending  the 
plane  to  which  he  has  just  struggled  by  his  utmost  efforts, 
and  the  soaring  youth  for  whom  family  connections  have 
gained  precocious  preferment,  bidding  fair  to  raise  him  in 
course  of  time  to  the  pinnacle  of  native  aspirations. 

So  far,  however,  only  one  phase  of  the  complicated  asso- 
ciational  life  of  the  Banks  Islands  has  been  described.  Its 
complement  is  represented  by  a  host  of  secret  organizations, 
*Ghost'  societies,  as  the  aborigines  call  them,  of  which  the 
diminutive  island  of  Mota  boasts  not  less  than  seventy- 
seven.  Unlike  the  clubhouse  the  equivalent  meeting-place 
of  the  Ghost  associations,  whether  a  lodge  or  mere  clearing, 
is  not  situated  in  the  village  but  in  the  relative  seclusion  of 
the  bush,  and  the  path  leading  to  it  is  tabooed  to  all  non- 
members.  Notwithstanding  Codrington's  and  Rivers'  note- 
worthy contributions  to  the  subject,  the  intricacies  of  these 


I 


ASSOCIATIONS  279 

organizations  have  been  by  no  means  completely  unraveled 
and  in  this  chapter  the  merest  sketch  of  what  seems  fairly 
certain  must  suffice. 

The  secret  organizations  vary  enormously  in  character, 
but  ordinarily  they  figure  as  so  many  additional  clubs.  With 
one  another  and  with  the  men's  club  they  share  the  feature 
that  entrance  is  dependent  on  an  initiation  and  the  payment 
of  a  fee.  But  some  of  the  societies  may  be  entered  even 
by  boys  who  have  not  yet  joined  the  club,  while  for  others 
that  would  be  simply  unthinkable.  In  certain  organizations 
several  men  may  enter  together  and  jointly  pay  the  amount 
requisite  for  an  initiation ;  but  no  such  economizing  is  per- 
mitted by  the  more  important  societies. 

Practically  all  the  societies  have  distinctive  masks  or 
objects  to  be  carried  in  the  hand.  These  objects  are  ex- 
hibited to  the  uninitiated  only  when  the  members  stalk 
about  the  island  on  certain  solemn  occasions  and  not  even 
then  at  close  range.  At  all  other  times  non-members,  and 
especially  women,  must  under  no  condition  see  or  come 
near  the  sacred  articles.  Most  of  the  societies  also  possess 
badges  of  a  totally  different  nature,  with  which  the  de- 
sirability of  entrance  is*  largely  bound  up.  These  emblems 
consist  of  the  leaves  of  croton  plants ;  when  they  are  stuck 
into  the  ground  by  a  member,  they  protect  his  property 
against  the  inroads  of  all  tribesmen  who  are  not  fellow- 
members  of  his  fraternity.  Any  one  who  should  transgress 
the  taboo  must  pay  a  pig  to  the  affronted  society,  and  a 
similar  fine  is  required  if  a  non-member  cuts  down  or  uses 
the  particular  species  of  croton  serving  as  a  badge  for 
some  organization.  Since  women  are  ineligible  to  all  fra- 
ternities, they  are  obliged  to  refrain  from  destroying  any 
of  these  plants.  Joining  a  particular  organization  is  thus 
in  a  measure  equivalent  to  taking  up  a  policy  in  an  insur- 
ance company  against  loss  of  property.  Since  protection 
is  secured  only  against  non-members,  the  smallest  organiza- 
tions are  naturally  the  most  effective   from   this  point  of 


28o  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

view,  which  results  in  an  amusing  cycle  of  vicissitudes.  One 
of  them  becomes  popular  because  of  its  protective  value, 
automatically  loses  its  efficacy  as  the  membership  increases, 
hence  sinks  in  general  estimation,  dwindles  in  numbers,  and 
may  then  again  be  revived.  Certain  of  the  fraternities  are 
not  liable  to  these  fluctuations  because  the  motives  for  seek- 
ing admission  are  quite  independent  of  those  connected  with 
property  insurance.  For  example,  entrance  to  the  Taniate 
liwoa  organization  would  be  sought  as  an  indispensable  pre- 
liminary to  gaining  the  higher  degrees  in  the  club. 

A  feature  characteristic  of  the  secret  societies  is  the  at- 
tempt to  terrorize  the  uninitiated.  A  man  will  blacken  his 
face  and  body  to  irrecognizability  and  sally  forth,  a  cane 
in  the  left  hand  and  a  club  in  the  right.  He  hits  people  who 
do  not  get  out  of  the  way  with  the  club  and  continually 
moves  about  his  stick  so  that  no  one  can  see  it  distinctly. 
Occasionally  there  also  occurs  the  wanton  destruction  or 
spoliation  of  a  luckless  individual's  property  by  an  organ- 
ized band  of  fraternity  members.  Thus,  when  a  candidate 
is  admitted  to  the  Tarn  ate  liwoa,  it  is  necessary  to  pull  down 
a  house,  which  is  chosen  by  the  novice's  father.  The  mem- 
bers, partly  in  disguise,  rush  out,  scare  off  women  and  the 
uninitiated,  and  destroy  the  dwelling  selected.  At  a  later 
stage  in  the  ritual  of  admission  not  only  the  candidate  but 
any  person  met  by  the  fraternity  who  has  not  yet  attained 
high  rank  in  the  club  receives  a  beating. 

Certain  proceedings  connected  with  entrance  into  the 
Tamate  lizvoa  recall  the  tribal  initiation  of  Australia.  The 
one  secret  learned  by  admission  into  the  Melanesian  fra- 
ternity is  how  to  produce  a  curious  sound  by  rubbing  a 
stick  on  a  stone.  Though  the  details  are  not  alike,  this 
strongly  suggests  the  Australian  attitude  toward  the  bull- 
roarer.  Again,  though  no  mutilation  is  inflicted,  the  tyro 
must  undergo  all  sorts  of  trials  during  a  probationary 
period  of  a  hundred  days.  People  come  to  throw  his  food 
into  the  Are,  break  his  knives  and  fine  him  if  he  voices  a 


ASSOCIATIONS  281 

complaint;  difficult  tasks  are  set,  and  when  he  offers  the 
product  of  his  labor,  it  is  spurned.  Here  again  the  analog}' 
is  general  rather  than  specific,  yet  it  is  illuminating  as  an 
example  of  the  notions  commonly  underlying  a  formal  ac- 
ceptance into  the  fold  in  the  cruder  levels  of  culture. 

If  we  now  pass  in  review  the  position  of  an  individual 
Banks  Islander  with  reference  to  his  various  social  rela- 
tions, their  potential  multitude  is  startling.  The  signifi- 
cance of  sex  has  already  been  sufficiently  commented  upon. 
Another  affiliation  follows  from  the  occurrence  of  the  dual 
organization.  Every  person  is  thus  born  into  an  exogam- 
ous  moiety,  and  since  the  moieties  are  subdivided  into  sec- 
tions with  specific  taboos  he  automatically  enters  still  an- 
other group.  Sooner  or  later  he  will  join  the  men's  club, 
belonging  successively  it  may  be  to  nine  or  ten  of  its  grades. 
But  concomitantly  he  is  likely  to  hold  membership  in  half 
a  dozen  of  the  secret  fraternities,  either  in  order  to  safe- 
guard his  possessions  or  to  enhance  his  social  status.  It 
hardly  requires  proof  that  to  reduce  the  social  organization 
to  the  sib  divisions  would  obliterate  all  that  is  genuinely 
distinctive  of  the  Banks  Islands  scheme  of  society.^ 

Pueblo  Indians 

The  multiplicity  of  ceremonial  organizations  among  the 
Pueblo  Indians  converts  their  social  scheme  into  a  bewil- 
dering maze.  Fortunately  since  the  publication  of  Kroe- 
ber's  guide-book  there  is  fair  promise  of  seeing  the  light 
of  day  as  a  sequel  to  much  labyrinthine  wandering. 

The  religious  corporations  of  the  Zufii  may  be  listed 
under  two  heads.  On  the  one  hand,  there  is  a  Masked 
Dancer  society  comprising  by  necessity  all  the  males  and 
no  females ;  secondly,  there  is  a  series  of  fraternities  into 
which  entrance  is  optional  and  open  to  both  sexes.  The 
function  of  the  Masked  Dancer  society  centers  in  the  magi- 
cal production  of  rain  under  the  direction  of  Rain  priests; 


282  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

the  fraternities  cure  the  sick  and  give  demonstrations  of 
magical  power. 

From  the  constitution  of  the  Masked  Dancer  society  it 
appears  that  we  must  conceive  it  as  the  equivalent  of  the 
tribal  club  of  other  areas.  But  though  there  is  a  supreme 
director  of  the  club  it  is  strictly  speaking  not  a  single  men's 
organization  as  in  Australia,  but  a  series  of  half  a  dozen 
units,  each  associated  with  a  distinct  ceremonial  chamber. 
These  six  subdivisions  sjonbolize  the  cardinal  directions, 
zenith  and  nadir  being  classed  in  this  category.  This  ar- 
rangement of  spatially  separate  lodges  would  suggest  the 
Melanesian  grouping  of  messmates  were  it  not  for  the 
absence  of  grades  in  the  Southwest:  the  Zuni  groups  ap- 
pear as  coordinate  social  units.  Membership  in  a  particular 
one  is  settled  at  birth;  the  infant  is  allotted  to  the  lodge 
of  the  husband  of  the  obstetrician  who  first  touches  him. 
It  is  this  man  who  acts  as  sponsor  for  the  child  both  at 
the  earlier  involuntary  and  subsequent  voluntary  initiation, 
the  latter  taking  place  at  the  age  of  twelve  or  thirteen.  At 
the  second  initiation  the  boy  is  severely  whipped  by  mem- 
bers who  impersonate  gods.  Each  novice,  for  several  boys 
are  admitted  jointly,  receives  a  rain-maker's  mask,  which 
becomes  his  individual  property  and  is  buried  at  death. 
On  this  occasion  the  boys  learn  for  the  first  time  that  the 
supposed  gods,  who  have  removed  their  masks,  are  only 
men.  The  god-impersonators  put  their  masks  on  the  neo- 
phytes and  surrender  their  whips  to  them,  and  the  boys 
thereupon  lash  their  former  tormentors.  Finally  the  mum- 
mers replace  the  masks  on  their  own  heads,  and  the  novices 
are  warned  not  to  divulge  the  initiatory  mysteries  lest  their 
heads  l)e  cut  off  with  a  stone  knife.  It  happens,  but  very 
rarely,  that  a  man  in  later  life  alters  his  lodge  affiliation 
from  choice,  though  in  such  a  case  he  may  at  any  time 
return  to  that  of  his  boyhood.  Further,  a  man  convicted 
of  adultery  with  a  fellow-meml^er's  wife  may  l>e  expelled 
and  driven  to  seek  admittance  into  another  chapter;  yet 


ASSOCIATIONS  283 

there  seems  to  be  a  strong  sentiment  against  expulsion  even 
in  extreme  cases. 

Since  the  Pueblo  Indians  have  a  remarkably  well-devel- 
oped sib  organization,  the  question  arises  whether  and  to 
what  extent  sib  affiliation  affects  membership  in  the  several 
ceremonial  units.  From  the  mode  of  entering  a  club  lodge, 
it  is  clear  that  mere  membership  in  a  suMivision  of  the 
men's  club  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  sib.  But  there  are 
special  offices  in  the  Masked  Dancers'  ritual  which  are  more 
or  less  associated  with  the  sib.  Thus,  the  director-general 
of  the  club  is  invariably  of  the  Deer  sib,  certain  masks  are 
in  the  custody  of  an  Eagle  man,  and  the  rain  songs  at  the 
close  of  a  quadrennial  ceremony  must  be  chanted  by  a  Frog 
man.  Yet  there  are  numerous  deviations  from  this  rule  of 
determining  ceremonial  office,  which  fairly  often  alternates 
between  the  member  of  a  certain  sib  and  a  son  of  that  sib, 
who  with  maternal  descent  and  exogamy  can  of  course  be- 
long to  any  sib  whatsoever  except  his  father's.  The  rain 
priests  of  the  tribal  club  are  theoretically  associated  with 
definite  sibs,  yet  in  the  actual  personnel  of  the  priesthood 
the  same  departure  is  noted  as  in  the  case  of  other  positions 
of  dignity.  The  heir-apparent  and  other  associates  of  a 
ranking  priest  may  be  his  sons,  who  cannot  possibly  be  of 
the  same  sib;  sometimes  they  are  brothers  or  sister's  sons, 
in  other  words,  sib-mates ;  and  sometimes  they  may  not  even 
be  kindred  of  any  sort.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  fetiches 
manipulated  by  each  set  of  priests,  and  these  are  stored  in 
specified  houses  and  are  definitely  linked  with  the  sib  units. 

In  general,  then,  the  rank  and  file  of  the  club  are  not 
grouped  according  to  sib  membership,  but  association  with 
the  sib  principle  occurs  for  ceremonial  club  offices,  being 
especially  conspicuous  in  the  case  of  the  priesthoods  and 
their  fetiches. 

Far  less  prominent  are  the  bonds  l>etween  the  fraternity 
and  the  sib  organization,  as  becomes  at  once  obvious  from 
the  mode  of  entrance.     The  usual  basis  for  joining  is  a 


284  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

cure  affected  by  the  fraternity;  the  patient  is  not  compelled 
to  enter  if  he  pays  adequate  compensation  to  the  acting 
practitioner,  but  commonly  he  prefers  to  enter  the  society. 
In  a  typical  fraternity  34  of  42  members  had  entered  in 
this  fashion.  Another  method  is  compulsory  initiation 
when  a  person  has  stumbled  into  an  executive  session  of 
the  fraternity.  With  one  or  two  exceptions  there  is  a  pos- 
sibility for  the  member  of  one  fraternity  to  shift  his  alle- 
giance to  any  other,  in  which  case  a  purely  perfunctory 
ceremony  takes  the  place  of  regular  initiation.  The  inde- 
pendence of  the  sib  implied  in  the  regulations  of  entrance 
applies  in  virtually  equal  degree  to  the  ritualistic  offices ; 
in  an  important  fraternity  Professor  Kroeber  found  that 
only  a  single  function  was  necessarily  executed  by  members 
of  a  specified  sib. 

Professor  Kroeber  has  fortunately  not  confined  his  at- 
tention to  the  Zuni,  but  furnished  an  analysis  of  the  Hopi 
fraternities  as  well.  These  are  theoretically  of  special  sig- 
nificance because  previous  writers  treated  the  fraternities 
as  a  natural  outgrowth  of  the  sib,  as  basically  representing 
the  ritualistic  aspect  of  the  sib  concept.  This  view  seemed 
to  derive  support  from  the  fact  that  Hopi  fraternities  fre- 
quently bear  the  same  names  as  sibs  and  that  native  specu- 
lation ascribed  the  founding  of  a  society  to  its  namesake  or 
some  other  particular  sib.  By  tabulating  the  concrete  ma- 
terial available  as  to  the  sib  membership  of  Hopi  fraterni- 
ties, Kroeber  shows  conclusively  that  in  most  cases  the 
alleged  bond  does  not  exist.  Of  35  Snake  fraternity  mem- 
bers only  7  belong  to  the  Snake  sib;  only  3  of  the  10  Ante- 
lope fraternity  memlDers  are  of  the  Horn  sib ;  not  more  than 
6  Rabbit  sib  people  are  found  in  the  supposedly  associated 
fraternity.  My  personal  census  in  the  field  largely  cor- 
roborates Kroeber's  conclusions,  though  with  the  qualifica- 
tion that  ritualistic  office  commonly  descends  in  the  sib. 
Thus,  in  the  village  of  Mishongnovi  the  Snake  dance  is  per- 
formed by  meml>ers  of  the  Corn,  Parrot,  Bear,  Badger, 


ASSOCIATIONS  285 

Eagle,  Cloud  and  Masiqwai  sibs,  but  the  Lizard  sib,  which 
represents  the  Snake  sib  of  other  villages,  holds  the  lead- 
er's position.  The  mode  of  entering  the  Snake  fraternity  is 
quite  like  that  generally  followed  by  the  Zufii  in  joining 
any  of  their  fraternities:  a  man  cured  by  a  Snake  member 
joins  in  lieu  of  paying  a  fee.  It  is  clear  that  very  little 
importance  attaches  to  the  coincidence  of  name.  In  the 
village  of  Shipaulovi  there  is  no  Snake  sib  and  the  director- 
ship of  the  Snake  fraternity  is  vested  in  a  Bear  man,  from 
whom  it  will  descend  to  his  sister's  son,  i.e.,  another  Bear 
man.  In  one  respect  Kroeber  may  have  overstated  the  case 
inasmuch  as  one  or  two  of  the  societies  seem  to  recognize  a 
birthright  of  members  of  a  certain  sib  to  fraternity  mem- 
bership. Nevertheless,  generally  speaking,  the  validity  of 
his  interpretation  is  sustained. 

In  other  words,  Pueblo  society  no  more  than  that  of 
other  regions  can  be  regarded  as  an  atomistic  structure  of 
sib  blocks.  A  dual  division  on  sex  lines  is  created  by  the 
compulsory  initiation  of  all  men  into  a  club,  and  within 
this  tribal  organization  affiliation  with  a  special  lodge  is 
again  independent  of  the  sib,  whatever  may  be  the  rule  of 
succession  to  ritualistic  service.  The  curative  fraternities 
of  the  Zufii  are  even  more  largely  free  from  the  sib  influ- 
ence, and  the  same  may  be  stated  for  the  comparable  socie- 
ties of  the  Hopi.  Thus,  the  importance  of  the  associational 
as  a  concomitant  of  the  kinship  grouping  is  manifest.  As 
Kroeber  points  out,  an  individual  of  sib  A  may  belong  to 
family  B,  have  a  father  of  sib  C,  join  fraternity  D,  priest- 
hood E  and  lodge  F ;  his  sib  mate  may  be  of  family  D,  have 
a  father  of  sib  E,  and  join  fraternity  F,  priesthood  A  and 
lodge  B.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  one  bond 
represented  by  the  sib  must  at  all  costs  take  precedence  over 
all  other  social  connections.  It  is  as  though  we  assumed 
that  a  man  who  votes  the  Republican  ticket  is  bound  to  act 
as  a  Republican  at  the  meeting  of  his  church,  in  an  assem- 
bly of  his  labor  union,   and  in  the  privacy  of  his  home 


286  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Manifestly  there  is  no  need  to  assign  to  any  one  social  tie 
a  predominant  position;  the  individual  normally  acts  as  a 
member  of  the  group  with  which  he  is  at  the  time  linked 
and  these  several  groups  need  not  come  into  contact  at  all, 
whether  by  way  of  coincidence  or  collision.® 

Crow 

In  the  chapter  on  Property  mention  was  made  of  the 
Tobacco  society  of  the  Crow  into  which  individuals  of 
either  sex  gain  entrance  by  payment  of  a  fee  to  their 
adopter.  The  novice  is  properly  trained  during  a  prelimi- 
nary period,  learning  certain  songs  selected  for  him  by  his 
'father,'  i.e.,  sponsor,  and  gains  the  status  of  complete  mem- 
bership with  the  privilege  of  henceforth  planting  the  sacred 
Tobacco  in  the  course  of  a  public  solemnity.  There  are 
numerous  chapters  of  the  Tobacco  order  and  the  tyro  natu- 
rally joins  that  of  his  'father,'  but  there  is  a  considerable 
esprit  dc  corps  among  the  several  subdivisions,  so  that  mem- 
bers of  any  and  all  chapters  may  participate  in  the  proceed- 
ings, though  only  those  of  the  adopting  group  are  morally 
entitled  to  a  share  in  the  initiation  fee  and  give  the  novice 
the  choice  of  their  sacred  objects.  The  Tobacco  initiation 
is  quite  devoid  of  attempts  at  chastisement  or  mutilation 
of  the  candidate ;  it  centers  in  his  receiving  appropriate  in- 
struction, ceremonial  songs,  regalia  and  prerogatives  in  re- 
turn for  the  heavy  payments  demanded.  Formerly  it  was 
usual  to  apply  for  admission  but  latterly  members  pique 
themselves  on  the  number  of  their  adoptive  children  and 
are  likely  to  urge  individuals  to  join.  It  has  also  been  cus- 
tomary for  a  person  in  a  position  of  hardship,  say,  when 
his  own  or  a  beloved  relative's  life  seemed  in  danger,  to 
pledge  entrance  provided  that  things  turned  out  in  accord- 
ance with  his  desires.  Another  difference  divides  ancient 
from  modem  usage.  At  an  earlier  stage  membership  was 
restricted  to  a  relatively  small  number  of  elderly  couples 


ASSOCIATIONS  287 

and  the  religious  features  were  predominant;  more  re- 
cently it  has  become  a  matter  of  social  prestige  to  belong 
to  the  order,  so  that  almost  all  adults  are  members  and 
even  young  children  have  been  adopted.  Nevertheless,  the 
ceremonial  character  of  the  society  has  not  by  any  means 
been  obliterated.  The  preservation  of  the  tribe  is  still  be- 
lieved to  hinge  on  the  continued  planting  of  the  sacred 
Tobacco,  which  symbolically  represents  the  stars.  From  a 
strictly  social  point  of  view  the  Tobacco  organizations  are 
important  since  an  altogether  special  bond  unites  the  per- 
sons standing  to  each  other  in  the  ceremonial  relationship 
of  father  and  child,  who  will  treat  each  other  with  the 
loving-kindness  of  genuine  kindred.  Another  feature  that 
merits  notice  is  the  tendency  to  initiate  husband  and  wife 
at  the  same  time. 

At  the  present  day  there  is  also  a  quartet  of  secular  clubs 
that  figures  prominently  in  tribal  life, — the  Night  Hot 
Dancers,  Big  Ear-Holes,  Last  Hot  Dancers  and  Sioux 
Dancers.  These  share  the  same  performance,  the  Hot 
Dance,  which  was  introduced  by  the  Hidatsa  in  the  'seven- 
ties of  the  last  century.  Practically  all  of  the  men  now 
living  belong  to  one  of  these  clubs.  Unlike  the  Tobacco 
chapters,  these  do  not  exact  an  entrance  fee,  nor  is  there 
any  suggestion  of  formal  initiation.  Each  club  aspires  to 
have  a  large  membership,  and  consequently  so  far  from 
extorting  payment  the  members  will  present  substantial 
gifts  to  clubable  men  in  order  to  make  them  join,  individ- 
uals of  known  liberality  who  are  likely  to  entertain  mem- 
bers being  specially  sought.  It  even  happens  that  persons 
of  renown  in  this  regard  are  enticed  to  transfer  their  mem- 
bership by  a  tempting  offer  of  property.  These  clubs  must 
be  conceived  as  in  large  measure  mutual  benefit  associa- 
tions. If  a  member  of  the  Big  Ear-Holes  is  required  to 
perform  a  certain  amount  of  labor,  all  his  comrades  in  the 
society  will  cooperate.  When  one  man  seeks  initiation 
into  the  Tobacco  order,  every  club  member  helps  accumu- 


288  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

late  the  amount  requisite  for  going  through  the  perform- 
ance in  due  style.  On  such  occasions  the  candidate's  club 
acts  in  precisely  the  same  fashion  as  his  sib.  From  time  to 
time  feasts  are  celebrated  by  the  club,  which  has  no  special 
assembly  lodge  but  meets  in  the  tent  of  one  of  the  com- 
rades. 

These  clubs,  however,  represent  merely  the  bowdlerized 
edition  of  an  earlier  form  of  association  that  still  flourished 
in  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  1833 
Prince  Maximilian  of  Wied-Neuwied  had  found  no  fewer 
than  eight  of  these  organizations ;  somewhat  later  they 
dwindled  down  to  four, — the  Muddy  Hands,  Big  Dogs, 
Foxes,  and  Lumpwoods;  and  about  the  'seventies  only  the 
two  last-mentioned  were  in  full  vigor.  These  clubs  were 
in  part  military  associations  seeking  to  gain  renown  on  the 
battlefield,  and  they  were  accordingly  confined  to  male  mem- 
bership, which,  however,  did  not  lead  to  a  rigid  exclusion 
of  the  women.  On  the  contrary,  women  commonly  par- 
ticipated in  the  feasts  and  excursions  of  the  clubs.  There 
was  a  public  function  assigned  by  the  tribal  chief  each 
year  to  one  of  the  clubs, — the  preservation  of  order  dur- 
ing the  communal  buffalo  hunt.  Further,  each  society  had 
its  dance  and  song,  but  religious  features  were  absent  to  a 
surprising  extent  in  view  of  the  well-known  tendency  of 
Plains  Indians  to  invest  all  sorts  of  phenomena  with  a 
religious  glamor. 

The  method  of  joining  a  military  club  was  as  informal 
as  that  noted  for  the  clubs  of  today,  that  is,  there  was  no 
adoption,  no  solemn  procedure  of  any  sort,  no  purchase. 
If  a  member  died,  his  comrades  sought  to  replace  him  by  a 
brother  or  close  kinsman  and  would  offer  gifts  to  this  per- 
son in  order  to  gain  his  consent.  But  there  was  no  obliga- 
tion for  the  several  brothers  of  a  family  to  belong  to  the 
same  society,  and  in  any  of  the  clubs  all  sorts  of  families 
and  sibs  were  represented.  Even  when  there  was  no 
vacancy  the  mcml>crs  might  offer  presents  to  a  renowned 


ASSOCIATIONS  289 

warrior  inducing  him  to  join  their  band,  whether  he  al- 
ready belonged  to  another  club  or  not.  A  personal  griev- 
ance likewise  would  lead  to  an  occasional  change  of  affilia- 
tion, but  on  the  whole  membership  was  for  life.  Some 
persons  joined  a  club  simply  because  they  liked  its  songs 
and  dances. 

Like  the  modern  clubs,  the  military  associations  are 
coordinate  units.  Each  embraced  young  and  old  men,  each 
might  in  rotation  execute  the  civic  duties  of  a  police  force, 
each  had  an  equivalent  set  of  songs  and  performances,  and 
all  modeled  their  internal  organization  on  a  single  pattern. 
Of  course,  equality  of  status  did  not  extend  to  an 
imitation  of  the  adult  clubs  by  the  boys,  who  under  the 
name  of  a  Hammer  society  mimicked  the  activities  of  their 
elders. 

Impossible  as  it  is  to  give  in  this  chapter  a  complete 
account  of  the  Crow  scheme  of  military  associations,  even 
a  moderately  vivid  picture  of  their  spirit  is  out  of  the 
question  unless  one  of  them  is  described  in  some  detail. 
Accordingly,  I  will  select  for  this  purpose  the  Fox  organi- 
zation. 

The  Foxes  were  subdivided  into  several  minor  groups 
according  to  age,  but  in  point  of  dress,  songs  and  eligibil- 
ity to  posts  of  honor  there  was  no  differentiation.  There 
was  little  in  the  way  of  distinctive  badges  for  the  rank  and 
file  except  for  a  foxskin  cape  worn  by  the  members.  Some 
of  the  officers,  however,  were  distinguished  by  special  em- 
blems. Their  dignity,  it  is  essential  to  note,  had  nothing 
to  do  with  any  such  status  as  attaches  to  the  presidency  or 
secretaryship  of  one  of  our  organizations.  The  functions 
corresponding  to  such  offices  were  executed  rather  infor- 
mally by  the  older  members.  As  for  the  Crow  officers, 
their  eminence  rested  on  prospective  or  tried  prowess  in 
battle.  In  the  spring  of  every  year  the  older  men  of  the 
club  summoned  the  others  to  assemble  in  a  lodge  and 
choose  the  eight  or  ten  braves  who  were  to  shed  lustre  on 


290  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Liicir  association.  Of  these,  the  four  standard-bearers  had 
the  most  clearly  defined  duties.  Two  of  them  were  pre- 
sented with  curved  and  two  with  straight  staffs ;  in  sight 
of  the  enemy  they  were  expected  to  plant  these  emblems 
into  the  ground  and  defend  their  standards  without  budg- 
ing, even  at  the  risk  of  their  lives.  To  abide  by  the  rule, 
whether  for  survival  or  death,  meant  achieving  fame  in 
the  society  and  the  tribe ;  to  retreat  was  to  lose  caste  and 
be  despised  as  "a  menstruating  woman."  Owing  to  the 
danger  incurred  by  acceptance  of  office,  many  would  de- 
cline the  peril-fraught  honor  but  in  case  of  necessity  the 
elders  could  force  a  mandate  on  a  particular  person  by 
stealthily  touching  his  lips  with  a  pipe.  Even  close  rela- 
tives thus  compelled  a  young  warrior  to  become  an  officer, 
not  because  they  wished  him  ill  but  because  they  were 
eager  to  have  him  gain  distinction.  With  the  first  snow- 
fall of  the  year  the  arduous  duties  of  the  position  ceased, 
and  the  following  spring  a  new  incumbent  would  receive 
the  fatal  lance. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  phenomena  linked  with  this 
society  is  the  spirit  of  rivalry  that  animated  the  Foxes  and 
the  Lumpwoods,  i.e.,  the  two  clubs  which  ultimately  gained 
the  ascendancy  among  Crow  military  organizations.  There 
was  no  trace  of  personal  hostility  in  this  relationship,  which 
was  sharply  defined.  In  certain  games  the  Foxes  with  their 
wives  were  pitted  against  the  Lumpwoods  and  their  waves ; 
in  war  each  club  tried  to  score  the  first  blow  struck  against 
the  enemy ;  and  in  the  beginning  of  spring  there  was  a  brief 
period  during  which  a  Fox  might  abduct  the  wife  of  a 
Lumpwood  if  she  had  at  some  previous  time  been  his  mis- 
tress, and  vice  versa. 

The  last-mentioned  custom  was  remarkable  in  several 
ways.  As  soon  as  the  kidnapping  season  had  been  an- 
nounced by  mutual  signals  of  defiance,  the  men  of  both 
clubs  sallied  forth  to  seize  fonner  mistresses  now  wedded 
to  members  of  the  rival  society.     Resistance  was  in  vain, 


ASSOCIATIONS  291 

for  if  necessary  there  was  recourse  to  force.     Least  of  all 
might  the  husband  offer  the  sHghtest  sign  of  resentment  or 
he  would  completely  lose  his  social  standing  in  the  tribe 
and  become  the  common  laughing-stock.    The  only  way  for 
a  woman  to  evade  abduction  was  to  throw  herself  on  her 
former  lover's  generosity.     For  the  husband  the  ideal  be- 
havior was  to  assume  a  brazen   face  and  encourage  the 
abductor  in  his  enterprise.    As  soon  as  the  Foxes  had  kid- 
napped a  Lump  wood  woman,  they  took  her  to  one  of  their 
lodges,  where  she  received  from  her  paramour's  kin  all  the 
finery  customarily  bestowed   on  a  bride.     The  next   day 
there  was  a  solemn  procession  in  which  the  members  ex- 
hibited  their  captive  to  the  public  gaze.     However,   she 
must  ride  double  only  with  a  Fox  of  conspicuous  war  rec- 
ord, otherwise  the  Lumpwoods  would  throw  her  and  her 
companion  from  the  horse  they  rode.     Apart  from  this  the 
Lumpwoods  attended  merely  as  interested  bystanders,  mak- 
ing an  ostentatious  display  of  feigned  indifference.     Usu- 
ally the  kidnapped  mistress  was  soon  abandoned  by  her 
lover,  but  under  no  condition  might  she  return  to  her  for- 
mer husband's  tent.     A  man  who  took  back  a  kidnapped 
wife  not  only  utterly  disgraced  himself  but  brought  igno- 
miny on  his  society  as  well  and  the  rival  club  was  at  liberty 
to  cut  up  the  blankets  of  all  the  members. 

Almost  equally  curious  was  the  custom  connected  with 
martial  competition.  If  a  Fox  struck  the  first  blow  of  the 
season,  the  Lumpwoods  thereby  forfeited  the  right  to  sing 
their  songs,  which  became  for  that  year  the  property  of 
their  rivals.  All  this  emulation  was  confined  to  the  period 
from  early  spring  till  the  first  snowfall,  when  it  automati- 
cally ceased,  the  two  organizations  thenceforth  living  to- 
gether in  perfect  amity. 

To  sum  up.  The  classification  into  sibs  constituted  but 
one  type  of  social  grouping,  which  was  criss-crossed  by 
other  divisions  of  equal  and  perhaps  even  greater  signifi- 
cance.^ 


292  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

HiDATSA 

The  Hidatsa,  too,  had  a  series  of  military  organizations, 
many  of  which  closely  resembled  those  of  the  Crow,  as 
might  be  expected  from  the  partial  identity  of  names. 
Thus,  the  Fox  and  the  Lumpwood,  Hammer  and  Dog  so- 
cieties are  common  to  both  tribes,  and  often  the  similari- 
ties are  of  the  most  detailed  kind.  The  hooked-spear  offi- 
cers of  the  Crow  Foxes  reappear  in  the  Hidatsa  equivalent 
with  precisely  the  same  duties ;  and  in  both  tribes  the  Dog 
men  carry  peculiar  rattles  of  dewclaws  tied  to  a  stick,  while 
certain  officers  wear  slit  sashes.  But  while  corresponding 
clubs  were  fundamentally  alike  and  doubtless  served  simi- 
lar social  needs  of  the  members,  the  mode  of  entrance  was 
wholly  different.  As  already  explained  (p.  242),  the 
Hidatsa  were  not  invited  to  join  individually  and  gratuit- 
ously, let  alone,  were  tempted  by  desirable  presents,  but 
were  obliged  collectively  to  buy  membership,  which  was 
henceforth  renounced  by  the  previous  holders,  so  that  the 
whole  transaction  was  tantamount  to  a  transfer  of  property 
rights. 

But  there  was  another  basic  difference  between  the  two 
schemes  in  addition  to  the  differences  as  to  mode  of  acquir- 
ing membership.  The  adult  men's  clubs  of  the  Crow  were 
coordinate  organizations  with  which  men  were  as  a  rule 
permanently  associated.  Among  the  Hidatsa  the  military- 
societies  formed  a  graded  series,  and  in  the  course  of  their 
lives  the  men  passed  from  one  grade  to  another.  Since 
purchase  played  so  decided  a  part  in  the  arrangement,  it 
might  be  conjectured  that  this  is  merely  a  replica  of  the 
Banks  Island  scheme.  Yet  there  is  a  profound  distinction 
between  these  systems.  Among  the  Melanesians  there  is 
individual  promotion,  so  that  the  affluent  youth  may  soon 
stride  past  the  indigent  dotard ;  with  the  Hidatsa  advance- 
ment is  uniformly  collective,  and  the  buyers  are  all  age- 
mates.     In  other  words,  the  Hidatsa  recognize  a  dual  basis 


ASSOCIATIONS  293 

for  membership,  purchase  and  age.  No  group  of  persons 
can  automatically  become  Foxes  or  Dogs  when  they  have 
attained  a  certain  age ;  they  can  only  become  members  by 
paying  the  fees  exacted.  On  the  other  hand,  no  man  can 
become  a  Fox  or  Dog  alone  but  only  in  conjunction  with 
a  whole  body  of  novices  all  about  his  own  age. 

An  interpretation  of  this  dualism  will  be  given  in  the 
next  chapter;  at  present  our  concern  is  with  the  stratifica- 
tion of  society  consummated  by  the  Hidatsa  scheme.  Since 
there  was  variation  in  detail  at  different  periods,  I  will 
take  a  definite  point  of  Hidatsa  history  for  illustration.  In 
1833  Prince  Maximilian  found  all  the  male  population  be- 
yond very  young  boys  grouped  into  ten  societies.  The 
youngest  were  the  Stone  Hammers,  aged  from  ten  to 
eleven ;  lads  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  formed  the  Lumpwoods ; 
youths  of  seventeen  and  eighteen  owned  the  next  higher 
society;  and  so  it  went  on  tO'  the  Raven  club,  which  united 
the  oldest  men  in  the  tribe.  Strictly  speaking,  it  is  not  true 
that  the  males  of  the  tribe  were  divided  up  among  ten 
societies  but  rather  into  ten  age-classes.  The  societies 
really  correspond  to  degrees,  and  according  to  the  Hidatsa 
scheme,  which  precluded  automatic  promotion,  certain  de- 
grees would  be  vacant  whenever  an  age-class  had  sold  its 
membership  since  its  members  might  have  to  wait  a  long 
time  before  being  able  to  buy  the  next  higher  degree.  In 
other  words,  each  age-class  was  a  pennanent  unit  but  it 
was  not  always  possessed  of  a  definite  place  in  the  series. 
In  speaking  of  age-classes,  however,  we  must  recollect  that 
these  Indians  never  knew  their  ages  by  years  and  that  the 
grouping  found  was  only  an  approximate  one.  In  this  as 
well  as  in  other  respects  a  comparison  with  the  Masai  age- 
classes  is  illuminating.  In  both  tril^es  there  is  a  certain 
latitude  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  strict  age-grouping. 
Some  Masai  are  initiated  at  a  rather  earlier  age  than  others 
either  because  of  economic  reasons  or  because  circumcision 
occurs  only  during  certain  periods;   the  age-class   is  thus 


294  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

indeed  constituted  of  approximate  coevals  but  arbitrarily 
includes  some  and  excludes  others  who  might  just  as  well 
be  otherwise  classified.  Among  the  Hidatsa  the  age-class 
is  likewise  founded  on  rough-and-ready  principles :  a  group 
of  playmates  decide  to  buy  their  first  society  together,  but 
as  soon  as  they  have  been  united  in  the  purchase  this  joint 
experience  converts  them  into  a  definite  social  unit.  There- 
after the  Masai  or  Hidatsa  individual's  age-class  affiliation 
is  immutable  like  his  sib  relationship. 

There  was  a  somewhat  amusing  alliance  between  alter- 
nate Hidatsa  age-classes.  When  age-class  2  attempted  to 
buy  the  membership  then  held  by  age-class  3,  it  could  de- 
pend on  the  assistance  of  class  4,  and  indeed  of  the  other 
even  classes,  while  a  similar  bond  united  the  odd  classes. 
The  reason  for  this  alternation  may  be  sought  in  the  mutual 
relations  of  adjoining  classes.  Between  these  there  was 
necessarily  a  'class  struggle'  since  the  sellers  would  always 
extort  the  highest  payments  possible;  hence  alternate 
classes  would  be  united  by  their  common  antagonism  to 
the  intermediate  class,  which  was  the  prospective  flayer  of 
the  lower  group  and  the  future  victim  of  the  higher  one. 

While  the  Crow  wom.en  had  no  societies  of  their  own, 
their  Hidatsa  sisters  had  a  smaller  but  parallel  series 
slightly  enlarged  by  borrowings  from  the  neighboring  Man- 
dan.  The  mode  of  purchase  was  identical  with  that  of 
the  men's  clubs,  and  there  was  even  a  direct  affiliation  with 
the  male  series,  inasmuch  as  certain  groups  of  women  aided 
the  odd  and  even  male  classes,  respectively.  Naturally 
these  organizations  were  not  distinctively  military,  but  in- 
direct martial  associations  are  recorded.  The  Skunk 
women  would  celebrate  the  slaying  of  an  enemy,  while  the 
Enemy  women  performed  a  dance  in  commemoration  of 
braves  who  had  fallen  in  a  recent  engagement.  In  the 
higher  units  of  the  series,  notably  the  Goose  and  the  White 
Buffalo  Cow  organizations,  the  secular  aspect  practically 
vanishes,  the  most  significant  activities  being  of  a  magico- 


ASSOCIATIONS  295 

religious  nature.  The  Goose  women  were  expected  to  pro- 
mote the  growth  of  the  corn,  while  on  the  white  Buffalo 
Cows  devolved  the  duty  of  luring  buffalo  herds  to  the  vil- 
lage in  times  of  scarcity.  These  societies  were  accord- 
ingly invested  with  an  atmosphere  of  holiness  quite  absent 
both  from  the  lower  members  of  the  series  and  the  ma- 
jority of  the  military  clubs.  In  the  women's  societies  the 
age  factor  was  not  wanting,  but  it  was  less  clearly  marked. 
On  the  one  hand,  it  was  customary  to  admit  one  or  two 
infants  to  the  older  groups  of  White  Buffalo  Cows  and 
Goose  women.  Secondly,  it  is  doubtful  whether  all  the 
women  were  grouped  into  these  societies ;  it  is  quite  pos- 
sible to  infer  from  the  data  that  while  fellow-members  were 
generally  approximate  age-mates  many  women  belonged  to 
no  definite  age-class,  in  other  words,  that  the  sex  as  a 
VN^hole  was  not  stratified  by  age. 

In  addition  to  the  age-classes,  which  will  have  to  be  dis- 
cussed later  from  still  another  angle,  the  Hidatsa  had  dis- 
tinctly sacrosanct  bodies  linked  with  bundles  of  holy  ob- 
jects and  performing  the  correlated  rituals.  Every  Hidatsa 
had  a  birthright  to  his  father's  bundle  and  ceremonial  pre- 
rogatives, but  before  the  potential  privilege  could  become 
an  actual  one  it  had  to  be  validated  by  purchase  from  the 
parent,  siblings  usually  combining  in  the  transaction.  This 
would  not  create  an  association  but  would  merely  fortify 
a  kinship  group  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  the  same  bundle 
and  ritual  were  shared  by  distinct  families,  so  that  individ- 
uals totally  unrelated  were  brought  together  by  identical 
ceremonial  prerogatives  and  ritualistic  performances. 
Thus,  despite  their  hereditary  character,  the  Hidatsa  bun- 
dles led  to  the  formation  of  still  another  type  of  social 
unit.  In  these  ritualistic  associations  women  played  a  part, 
notably  as  custodians  of  the  bundles  bought  by  their 
husbands. 

Thus,  a  typical  Hidatsa  indi.vidual  would  be  born  into  a 
sib,  but  would  in  boyhood  help  in  the  formation  of  an  age- 


296  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

class,  passing  with  his  comrades  from  one  degree  or  so- 
ciety to  another  through  successive  joint  purchases ;  and 
independently  of  these  affiliations,  he  would  by  purchase  of 
the  patrimonial  bundle  become  a  member  of  one  of  the 
ritualistic  associations  of  his  village.  A  woman,  while  per- 
haps not  necessarily  connected  with  an  age-class,  was  often 
so  affiliated,  and  also  held  a  definite  relation  to  her  hus- 
band's bundle.* 

Summary 

Brief  as  is  the  preceding  survey,  it  demonstrates  the 
importance  and  variety  of  associations  both  in  sibless  com- 
munities and  those  organized  into  sibs.  Sex  moieties,  di- 
visions on  the  basis  of  matrimonial  status,  social  clubs,  se- 
cret fraternities,  all  crisscross  the  bonds  of  the  family  and 
the  sib,  creating  new  units  of  incalculable  significance  for 
the  individual's  social  existence.  So  far,  then,  Schurtz's 
view  of  primitive  society  is  wholly  justified,  and  the  de- 
scription of  the  Morgan  school  must  be  recognized  as  in- 
adequate. 

References 

^Schurtz:    1-82.    Webster. 
2  Man  :  40,  60  seq,  108.  207.     Parsons  :  282. 
^  Cunow,  1894:   25  seq.,  144  seq.     Spencer  and  Gillen,  1904: 
257,328,498,611.     Howitt:   509  seq. 

*  Hollis,  1905:   XVI,  260  seq.,  280  seq.    Merker :    16,  67  seq 
^Rivers,  1914  (b)  :   1,60-143.     Codrington :    loi  seq. 
M<:rocber,  1917  (a):    150-188.    Stevenson:  62-107. 
^  Lowie,  1913:    147-21 1. 
^Lowie,  1913:    225-354. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THEORY    OF    ASSOCIATIONS 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  I  have  merely  pointed  out  the 
important  position  of  associational  groups  in  primitive 
social  organization.  No  attempt  was  made  to  grapple  with 
the  problems,  historical  and  sociological,  that  develop  from 
these  data.  In  examining  these  it  will  be  well  to  begin 
with  an  exposition  of  Schurtz's  scheme,  which  furnishes  a 
convenient  set  of  pegs  for  the  attachment  of  theoretical 
considerations. 

Schurtz's  Scheme 

According  to  Schurtz's  theory,  a  profound  difference  in 
the  psychology  of  the  sexes  underlies  the  differentiation 
between  kinship  and  associational  groups.  Contrary  to  re- 
ceived notions,  woman  is  an  eminently  unsociable  being 
and  refrains  from  fomiing  unions  on  the  basis  of  like  in- 
terests, remaining  centered  in  the  kinship  group  based  on 
sexual  relations  and  the  reproductive  function.  Associa- 
tions created  or  even  joined  by  women  on  equal  terms  with 
the  men  are  rare  and  must  be  considered  weak  imitations 
of  the  exclusively  male  associations.  Man,  on  the  other 
hand,  tends  to  view  sexual  relations  in  the  light  of  episodes 
and  fosters  the  purely  social  factor  that  makes  "birds  of 
a  feather  flock  together."  Thus  the  psychological  differ- 
ences between  men  and  women  lead  to  a  sociological  sepa- 
ration. There  is  another  form  of  cleavage  within  the  fam- 
ily   circle,    but    one    that    not    merely    destroys    but    also 

297 


298  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

creates  social  ties.  The  antagonism  between  the  older  and 
the  younger  generation  that  separates  parent  and  child 
forms  the  germ  of  a  classification  by  age,  which  Schurtz 
accordingly  regards  as  the  oldest  type  of  associated 
grouping. 

Schurtz  does  not  contend  that  the  kind  of  age-grouping 
found  in  the  simpler  cultures  has  a  purely  natural  basis. 
It  rather  represents  a  blending  of  physiological  and  con- 
ventional factors.  The  typical  condition  is  the  tripartite 
division  of  a  community  into  children,  marriageable  youths 
and  girls,  and  married  couples.  Here  the  separation  of  the 
first  two  groups  depends  on  a  natural  difference,  while 
that  of  the  second  and  third  is  an  artificial  one.  Schurtz 
sees  its  raison  d'etre  in  an  effort  to  regulate  sex  relations  on 
the  Masai  plan  of  permitting  free  love  to  the  young  and 
establishing  firm  conjugal  bonds  in  later  life.  In  such  a 
society  the  bachelors  form  the  best-marked  and  organized 
group,  the  spinsters  representing  merely  a  degenerate  re- 
flection of  it  on  account  of  the  feminine  inaptitude  for  com- 
radeship. Entrance  into  the  important  body  of  bachelors 
at  the  time  of  puberty  is  properly  signalized  by  complicated 
solemnities,  while  the  girls'  initiation  into  the  status  of 
maturity  is  of  relatively  insignificant  character  in  corre- 
spondence with  the  less  definite  organization  of  the  spin- 
ster class. 

Schurtz  assumes  that  wherever  a  greater  number  of  age- 
classes  occurs  this  is  the  effect  of  secondary  elaboration  of 
the  tripartite  division.  Thus  he  recognizes  the  possibility 
that  simultaneous  initiation  may  establish  a  bond  of  union ; 
but  he  holds  that  the  resulting  classes  have  been  superim- 
posed upon  the  simpler  scheme.  In  the  case  of  the  Hidatsa 
and  related  systems,  which  he  specifically  deals  with,  he 
derives  their  secondary  origin  not  only  from  the  great  num- 
ber of  the  age-classes  but  also  from  the  qualifications  for 
entrance.  For  it  is  one  of  his  axioms  that  the  grouping  by 
physiological  age  and  matrimonial  status  preceded  all  oth- 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  299 

efS,  |f)Urchase  as  a  factor  for  the  admission  into  a  social 
unit  representing  a  later  stage  of  evolution. 

In  intimate  connection  with  the  age-classes  and  more 
particularly  with  the  dominant  role  played  by  the  organized 
bachelors  there  develops  the  men's  house.  It  is  character- 
ized as  a  structure  in  which  ,the  adult  but  single  men  cook 
their  meals,  work,  play,  and  sleep,  while  the  married  men 
dwell  apart  with  their  families.  Women  and  children  are 
usually  barred  from  the  premises,  while  the  mature  young 
girls  may  freely  consort  with  the  inmates.  Though  he  re- 
gards this  as  the  archetype  of  the  institution,  Schurtz  recog- 
nizes that  its  observed  representatives  deviate  widely  from 
the  assumed  norm.  Such  divergences  he  interprets  invari- 
ably as  later  differentiations  and  he  admits  that  several  lines 
of  evolution  have  been  pursued.  For  one  thing,  the  bache- 
lors' dwelling  may  retain  its  hold  upon  the  married  men 
and  thus  be  transformed  into  a  general  club  and  even  be- 
come a  dormitory  for  all  the  adult  males.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  bachelors'  house  loses  its  original  character  if  its 
facilities  for  convivial  assemblage  and  dancing  are  accen- 
tuated, which  may  even  lead  to  the  admission  of  women. 
Still  other  lines  of  development  will  convert  it  into  a  sweat- 
house,  a  council  chamber,  an  armory,  an  inn  or  a  work- 
shop, to  mention  only  some  of  the  possibilities.  Schurtz 
does  not  ignore  the  objection  that  the  men's  house  may  be 
characteristic  only  of  certain  related  stocks  of  mankind  and 
that  its  distribution  could  be  explained  as  the  effect  of  his- 
torical connection  rather  than  of  a  sociological  law.  In- 
deed, he  admits  that  the  most  typical  fcrms  are  restricted 
to  the  Malaysian  family.  Nevertheless,  the  ethnographic 
evidence  as  a  whole  leads  him  to  the  conclusion  that  so- 
cieties have  an  inherent  tendency  to  develop  the  men's 
house,  which  is  merely  "the  external  phase  of  a  simple,  ex- 
tremely obvious  (nahe  Uegenden)  division  into  age-classes 
and  in  this  sense  an  almost  inevitable  transitional  stage  in 
the  evolution  of  higher  social  structures." 


300  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

But  sex  and  age  do  not  remain  the  only  socializing 
agencies.  At  a  more  developed  stage  of  society  the  tend- 
ency to  exclusiveness  makes  itself  felt  and  clubs  arise,  sup- 
planting the  earlier  age-classes.  This  trend  is  fostered  by 
a  differentiation  according  to  rank  and  wealth.  Slaves  and 
paupers  are  barred  from  the  age-classes,  which  thus  natur- 
ally acquire  a  club-like  character.  Where  entrance  fees 
are  required,  the  age-qualification  and  with  it  the  age-strati- 
fication of  society  vanishes,  and  instead  there  appears  a  sys- 
tem of  grades  such  as  characterizes  the  organization  of  the 
Banks  Islands.  Clubs  may  follow  either  of  two  lines  of 
development :  they  will  grow  into  ceremonial  associations, 
representing  distinctively  religious  orders ;  or  they  will 
stress  the  strain  of  conviviality  peculiar  to  male  groups 
from  the  start  and  become  groups  of  banqueters  whose  sym- 
posia have  no  more  serious  aim  than  the  promotion  of 
good-fellowship. 

Secret  societies  represent  the  last  form  of  association 
founded  by  masculine  gregariousness.  They  are  not  a 
necessary  stage  in  the  social  evolution  of  associations  from 
the  primeval  age-grouping,  nor  can  all  the  secret  societies 
be  traced  directly  back  to  age-classes,  though  an  indirect 
relationship  may  be  assumed.  Their  activities  are  manifold. 
One  prominent  trait  is  the  attempt  to  keep  women  and 
slaves  in  subjection,  a  feature  not  unintelligible  from  the 
basic  nature  of  associations  as  conceived  by  Schurtz.  As 
for  the  formal  side  of  secret  organizations,  that  is  also 
traceable  to  phenomena  in  the  older  age-divisions  with  their 
trying  initiation  solemnities.  The  beginnings  of  an  ances- 
tral cult,  such  as  many  secret  societies  practise,  is  likewise 
discoverable  in  the  tribal  initiation  rites,  which  are  often 
linked  with  corresponding  notions.  The  secret  societies 
have  developed  this  germ,  together  with  such  special  ele- 
ments as  the  wearing  of  masks,  skull-worship,  and  the  use 
of  taboo  rules  for  the  safeguarding  of  property.  Deriving 
support  from  their  supposedly  mystic  powers,  these  organi- 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  301 

zations  sometimes  degenerate  into  gangs  terrorizing  and 
robbing  the  uninitiated.  But  they  are  also  hkely  to  assume 
at  least  the  forms  of  a  body  dispensing  justice.  They  will 
punish  the  membership  for  breach  of  confidence  or  like 
transgressions  and  inflict  penalties  on  outsiders  for  antag- 
onizing their  interests ;  they  may  develop  into  the  one  body 
wielding  political  power  and  as  such  they  have  even  been 
utilized  by  British  colonial  administrators.  Though  the 
potentiality  for  secret  organizations  is  ever  present,  particu- 
lar representatives  of  the  type  are  eminently  unstable  units. 
For  one  thing,  Schurtz  believes  that  in  the  long  run  it  is 
impossible  to  preserve  the  secrecy  of  the  watchwords  or 
other  arcana.  He  considers  as  typical  the  development 
noted  in  Central  Brazil,  where  one  people  excludes  women 
from  all  dances,  while  another  tribe  admits  them  to  cere- 
monies of  lesser  dignity;  where  in  one  region  the  bull- 
roarers  must  never  be  seen  by  a  member  of  the  female  sex 
and  are  carefully  concealed  in  the  men's  house,  while  in  a 
neighboring  section  of  the  country  they  are  coolly  exposed 
to  the  public  gaze.  Elsewhere  the  atmosphere  of  secrecy 
is  dispelled  and  the  society  persists  as  a  mere  club,  and  in 
still  other  parts  of  the  globe  the  secret  organizations  are 
transmuted  into  a  constabulary  force  serving  the  chief  or 
into  ecclesiastical  orders  that  may  even  come  to  admit 
women. 

This  brief  sketch  suffices  to  indicate  the  character  of 
Schurtz's  thinking.  In  comparing  his  system  with  Mor- 
gan's a  fundamental  likeness  is  revealed  by  closer  scrutiny. 
Schurtz  envisages  phenomena  wholly  ignored  by  Morgan, 
but  like  Morgan  he  imposes  upon  his  data  an  evolutionary 
scheme  that  purports  to  possess  general  validity  and  thus 
seeks  to  formulate  sociological  laws.  It  is  true  that  Schurtz 
has  a  keener  sense  of  the  intricacy  of  social  arrangements, 
so  that  he  makes  allowance  for  a  multitude  of  developments 
from  the  same  standard  condition,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
men's  house.    But  this  does  not  prevent  him  from  adhering" 


302  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

rigidly  to  his  chronological  sequence  so  far  as  it  relates  to 
the  main  stages  of  evolution.  He  is  as  certain  of  the  uni- 
form priority  of  age-classes  when  compared  with  clubs  or 
secret  organizations  as  Morgan  is  of  the  necessary  priority 
of  matrilineal  descent.  To  be  sure,  Schurtz  frequently 
makes  obeisance  to  the  principle  of  transmission,  but  at 
bottom  he  yields  to  it  little  more  than  lip-service ;  indeed,  he 
expressly  states  that  for  sociological  inquiries  the  problem 
of  diffusion  is  insignificant. 

Now,  as  has  been  previously  pointed  out,  the  question  of 
diffusion  is  never  insignificant.  Though  it  may  be  conceded 
that  the  mere  knowledge  of  how  one  people  borrowed  a 
given  trait  from  another  does  not  itself  furnish  the  key  to 
its  comprehension,  proof  of  borrowing  has  a  most  import- 
ant bearing  on  interpretation  since  it  involves  the  proof 
that  in  the  borrowing  society  the  feature  has  not  arisen 
spontaneously,  that  its  occurrence  there  does  not  rest  on 
the  operation  of  a  sociological  law  by  which  it  was  inevi- 
tably bound  to  evolve.  Of  course  it  may  be  contended  that 
it  would  have  evolved  independently,  but  that  is  mere  alle- 
gation. So  it  might  be  contended  that  the  aboriginal 
Britons  would  have  developed  the  art  of  writing,  that  the 
Alaskan  Eskimo  would  ultimately  have  hit  upon  the  notion 
of  domesticating  reindeer,  by  their  own  unaided  efforts. 
Such  assertions  are  indeed  readily  made  but  not  so  readily 
demonstrated.  To  apply  this  principle  to  the  case  under 
discussion,  it  is  by  no  means  a  matter  of  slight  moment 
whether  the  men's  house  in  Assam  and  in  the  Banks  Islands 
developed  separately,  or  whether  they  and  the  comparable 
institutions  of  Indonesia  all  originated  in  a  single  spot.  On 
the  former  assumption  it  is  hard  to  deny  some  tendency  on 
the  part  of  human  societies  to  segregate  the  male  popula- 
tion in  a  distinctive  structure.  On  the  latter  hypothesis  the 
strength  of  that  tendency  shrinks  considerably  and  the 
question  inevitably  obtrudes  itself  whether  a  phenomenon 
that  has  traveled  over  so  great  a  distance  may  not  have 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  303 

gone  still  further,  in  short,  whether  all  samples  of  the  men's 
house,  no  matter  where  found,  are  not  traceable  to  one 
fountain-head.  Were  this  inference  established,  the  argu- 
ment on  behalf  of  a  sociological  force  impelling  the  creation 
of  a  men's  house  would  have  not  a  leg  to  stand  upon ;  the 
utmost  that  could  be  contended  for  would  be  a  tendency  to 
copy  the  institution  when  it  had  once  been  presented  for 
imitation. 

Schurtz  blinks  at  these  rather  obvious  facts  and  accord- 
ingly his  marginal  remarks  on  historical  connection,  while 
indicating  that  he  has  heard  of  diffusion  as  an  active  prin- 
ciple in  culture  history,  do  not  imply  its  efficient  use  by 
himself  and  cannot  be  taken  to  divide  his  method  logically 
from  that  of  Morgan.  This  holds  more  especially  since 
Morgan's  own  occasional  rodomontades  about  historical 
connection  put  to  shame  the  most  swashbuckling  of  recent 
diffusionists :  not  only  has  the  sib  in  his  opinion  a  unitary 
origin  but  for  the  systems  of  relationship  even  diffusion 
will  not  do  and  nothing  short  of  racial  affinity  is  made  to 
account  for  a  like  classification  of  kin  by  the  Zulu  and  Ha- 
waiians !  All  of  which  in  no'  way  interferes  with  the  es- 
sentially unilineal  evolutionism  of  his  system.  In  sub- 
stance, then,  Morgan  and  Schurtz  stand  on  the  same  plane 
and  employ  the  same  conceptual  machinery;  and  Schurtz's 
distinction  lies  in  having  very  materially  expanded  the  field 
of  sociological  inquiry  rather  than  in  the  suggestion  of  new 
methods  of  cultivation.  Pioneer  husbandmen  in  science,  to 
borrow  Turgenev's  telling  phrase,  lightly  skim  the  surface 
of  the  virgin  soil  with  the  hoe,  and  deep-ploughing  comes 
later. 

After  these  introductory  comments  I  will  now  discuss  the 
more  important  general  problems  connected  with  associa- 
tions/ 

Sex  Dichotomy 

With  fulsome  iteration  Schurtz  insists  on  the  basic  mental 


304  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

difference  that  leads  men  to  aggregate  in  associations,  while 
the  unsociable  females  of  the  species  rarely  so  much  as 
timidly  copy  the  masculine  prototypes  or  join  in  the  so- 
cieties of  the  other  sex.  One  need  hardly  be  a  perfervid 
feminist  to  repudiate  this  sort  of  reasoning.  In  order  to 
enter  a  society  something  more  is  required  than  the  will  to 
membership.  Considering  that  women  who  should  venture 
near  an  Australian  initiation  ground  were  mercilessly  killed, 
it  is  not  remarkable  that  relatively  few  exposed  themselves 
to  so  perilous  a  form  of  blackballing.  Nor  is  it  by  any 
means  certain  that  the  organization  of  independent  so- 
cieties would  always  be  permitted  by  the  men ;  in  some 
regions  at  least  the  total  absence  of  women's  clubs  may  be 
due  largely  to  the  discountenancing  attitude  assumed  by 
men.  But  even  this  factor  is  not  required  to  explain  the 
empirical  facts.  The  Altaian  and  Kirgiz  data  have  al- 
ready been  cited  in  another  chapter  but  are  especially  illum- 
inating in  the  present  connection.  The  Altaian  household 
drudge  has  simply  no  time  for  sociability,  whether  her  hus- 
band would  grant  his  consent  for  such  indulgence  or  not. 
Given  a  different  division  of  labor  and  her  Kirgiz  sister, 
laughing  to  scorn  the  abstract  tenets  of  Islam,  mingles  freely 
in  the  company  of  other  women  and  men,  even  engaging 
in  spirited  singing  contests  with  members  of  the  other  sex. 
Whatever  psychological  differences  may  divide  the  sexes — 
and  I  am  not  prepared  to  deny  them — the  lesser  gregarious- 
ness  of  women  can  hardly  be  reckoned  an  innate  feminine 
failing  so  long  as  fairly  definite  alternative  explanations 
suggest  themselves  for  her  limited  associational  activity. 

One  of  the  most  convincing  of  these  interpretations  has 
been  suggested  by  Professor  Karl  von  den  Steinen  and  Dr. 
Paul  Radin.  The  former  conceives  the  Bakairi  mysteries 
as  an  outgrowth  of  the  chase,  as  hunters'  festivals,  from 
which  women  would  naturally  be  barred.  Similarly,  Radin 
remarks  that  a  soldiers'  society  would  not  be  likely  to  admit 
women,  nor  a  sewing  circle  men.    The  exclusion  is  in  these 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  305 

cases  almost  automatic.  We  may  add  that  the  activities  of 
women  are  frequeiitly  not  of  a  nature  that  calls  for  con- 
certed effort  in  the  same  sense  as,  say,  a  warlike  enterprise. 
A  potter  can  execute  her  earthenware  just  as  well  without 
a  crowd  of  fellow-workers.  On  the  other  hand,  Mooney 
found  that  among  the  Cheyenne  the  women  were  organ- 
ized into  a  variety  of  guilds  devoted  to  the  higher  reaches 
of  the  various  feminine  crafts,  such  as  tent-cutting,  quill 
embroidery,  moccasin  decoration,  and  rawhide  painting. 
Entrance  was  granted  only  on  payment  of  heavy  fees,  and 
altogether  these  organizations  are  plausibly  likened  by  their 
discoverer  to  our  trade  unions.  Here  the  necessity  for 
gaining  expert  advice  and  recognition  in  a  chosen  field  of 
endeavor  has  caused  an  exuberance  of  societies  that  puts 
to  shame  the  dogma  of  woman's  unsociability. 

Indeed,  the  North  American  data  amply  illustrate  the 
baselessness  of  Schurtz's  cardinal  principle.  In  the  Crow 
Tobacco  society  women  figure  at  least  as  conspicuously  as 
men  and  are  commonly  admitted  with  their  husbands,  a 
married  couple  almost  representing  a  fixed  unit.  A  similar 
notion  is  found  among  the  Hidatsa,  where  the  medicine 
bundles  are  usually  transferred  to  a  buyer  through  his  wife, 
who  is  first  expected  to  touch  the  fetiches  with  her  body. 
The  presence  of  distinctively  feminine  organizations  in  this 
tribe  has  already  been  noted,  and  if  they  are  less  numerous 
than  the  comparable  men's  societies  they  are  also  more 
sacred  in  character.  As  Radin  points  out,  the  Midewiwin, 
the  great  secret  society  of  the  Central  Algonkians,  admits 
both  male  and  female  shamans.  In  a  number  of  Omaha 
organizations  a  communication  from  a  definite  supernatural 
being,  such  as  Thunder  or  the  Buffalo,  was  the  prerequisite 
to  membership,  and  female  as  well  as  male  visionaries  were 
eligible.  In  the  Southwest  men  are  certainly  more  active 
ceremonially  than  women,  yet  women  too  have  their  sepa- 
rate societies  and  dances.  The  Shoshoneans  of  the  Great 
Basin  have  nothing  that  can  properly  be  classed  as  a  so- 


3o6  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

ciety  but  in  the  various  dances  and  festivities  men  and 
women  engage  on  equal  terms. 

Not  less  instructive  than  the  many  instances  of  feminine 
gregariousness  in  North  America  are  the  reported  analo- 
gies to  the  men's  house  or  tribal  society  of  other  continents. 
These,  as  shown  in  a  previous  chapter,  are  confined  to  the 
vicinity  of  the  Pacific  coast,  a  circumstance  suggesting  the 
possibility  of  transmission  from  a  common  center.  What 
interests  us  more  especially  in  the  present  connection,  how- 
ever, is  that  the  implications  of  the  American  institutions 
are  as  a  rule  quite  different  from  their  apparent  parallels 
in  Australia  and  Melanesia.  In  the  Banks  Islands  there 
is  a  genuine  dual  organization  on  the  basis  of  sex,  by  which 
all  the  initiated  males  eat,  live  and  sleep  apart  from  the 
females.  The  Australians  do  not  carry  the  separation  so 
far  but  at  least  make  it  apply  to  religious  and  public  life. 
In  both  areas  all  the  men  are  initiated  and  none  of  the 
women  can  be.  Now  it  is  precisely  this  basic  view  of 
woman's  status,  functions,  and  disabilities  that  strikes  the 
Americanist  as  essentially  un-Indian  and  to  which  there  is 
hardly  any  parallel  in  North  America. 

For  example,  in  the  northern  half  of  California  there  is 
a  men's  house  and  also  a  men's  secret  society,  but  the  under- 
lying conceptions  seem  very  different  from  those  recorded 
for  other  continents.  In  the  winter  the  Hupa  men  sleep 
apart  from  the  women,  occupying  the  village  swcathouse, 
but  they  eat  with  their  wives  throughout  the  year  and  live 
with  them  in  brush  shelters  during  the  summer.  The  segre- 
gation of  the  men  is  thus  only  a  partial  one.  Moreover,  it 
does  not  involve  the  exclusion  of  women  from  ceremonial 
activity:  there  are  female  shamans  and  at  the  time  of  Dr. 
Goddard's  sojourn  the  Brush  dance  was  conducted  by  an 
old  woman,  the  only  person  conversant  with  the  'medicine' 
required.  In  the  same  general  region  the  Shasta  have  men's 
winter  dormitories  and  clubhouses  where  the  men  sweat, 
lounge  and  gamble.     Shasta  ritualism  is  almost  wholly  re- 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  307 

stricted  to  shamanistic  performances,  and  here  we  are  as- 
tonished to  find  that  shamanism  is  largely  a  feminine 
profession.  That  is  to  say,  in  spite  of  the  men's  house 
ceremonial  activity  is  to  a  considerable  extent  in  the  hands 
of  women,  which  would  certainly  strike  an  Oceanian  as  the 
acme  of  topsy-turvydom.  Passing  on  to  the  Maidu,  we 
discover  a  somewhat  different  condition  of  affairs.  The 
large  structures  corresponding  outwardly  to  the  Shasta 
men's  house  coincide  only  partly  in  function ;  they  are  suda- 
tories but  not  so  much  clubs  as  ceremonial  chambers.  Fur- 
thermore, the  women  are  not  barred  from  these  dance  lodges 
on  all  occasions  but  actively  participate  in  a  number  of  the 
ceremonials ;  female  shamans  occur,  though  fewer  in  num- 
ber than  among  the  Shasta,  and  attend  the  annual  shaman- 
istic festival  in  the  sweathouse. 

So  far,  then,  the  Californian  data  do  not  indicate  a  rigid 
separation  of  the  sexes  on  Oceanian  principles.  Segrega- 
tion of  the  men  during  part  of  the  year  is  quite  consistent 
with  common  meals  and  in  a  measure  with  common  cere- 
monies. However,  the  Yuki,  Porno  and  Maidu  have  a  se- 
cret organization  that  at  first  strongly  suggests  the  tribal 
society  of  other  continents  since  there  is  a  rigid  exclusion 
of  all  women.  Indeed,  the  somewhat  journalistic  report  of 
Powers  on  the  two  former  tribes  invests  their  societies  with 
a  distinctly  West  African  and  Melanesian  atmosphere  in  its 
description  of  mummers  impersonating  evil  spirits  to  cow 
women  into  submission  and  chastity.  But  in  appraising  the 
significance  of  the  Californian  phenomena  we  must  not  for- 
get one  all-important  fact.  The  secret  society  was  not  a 
group  comprising  all  men ;  initiation  was  not  an  indis- 
pensable stage  in  the  individual's  life,  was  not  a  prerequisite 
to  matrimonial  status.  This  feature  suffices  to  distinguish 
it  from  the  tribal  society  of  the  Australians.  It  may  be 
compared  with  the  Ghost  organizations  of  the  Banks  Is- 
lands, but  such  parallelism  as  exists  is  not  significant  in  the 
present  connection,  i.e.,   as  regards  the   existence   of   sex 


3o8  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

moieties.  These  cannot  be  ascribed  even  to  the  Porno  be- 
cause, as  Dr.  Barrett's  report  demonstrates,  in  most  of  the 
dances  an  indefinite  number  of  both  men  and  women  might 
participate,  while  in  two  others  the  number  of  each  sex 
was  prescribed.  In  addition  there  were  five  dances  in  which 
only  men  took  part,  though  at  least  two  of  these  were  wit- 
nessed by  women ;  and  two  women's  dances  from  which, 
however,  men  were  not  barred.  Accordingly,  the  exclusion 
of  women  (together  with  uninitiated  men)  from  one  eso- 
teric ceremonial  cannot  be  subsumed  under  the  caption  of 
sexual  dichotomy.  Similar  considerations  apply  to  the 
Maidu  case.  The  position  of  the  female  shamans  of  that 
tribe  is  especially  interesting  when  we  contrast  it  with  that 
of  corresponding  practitioners  in  Queensland.  The  Aus- 
tralian woman  doctor  practises  certain  tricks,  yet  she  must 
never  handle  or  look  upon  the  charms  that  constitute  the 
regular  physician's  stock-in-trade  and  "on  no  account  is  she 
ostensibly  allowed  to  join  in  the  secret  deliberations  of  the 
other  medical  practitioners." 

What  holds  for  California  applies  likewise  to  the  Pueblo 
region.  The  subterranean  ceremonial  chambers  ordinarily 
used  as  men's  workshops  and  lounging-places  are  known  to 
have  once  served  also  as  the  bachelors'  dormitories  and  as 
sweathouses ;  but  their  existence  does  not  interfere  with  the 
free  association  of  both  sexes  in  daily  life.  Even  the  addi- 
tional feature  of  a  men's  tribal  organization  has  failed  to 
compass  that  end  or  to  prevent  women  from  participating  in 
ceremonial  activity.  In  the  extreme  north  the  Alaskans 
differ  from  the  other  Eskimo  in  having  a  men's,  especially 
bachelors',  dormitory  combining  the  features  of  a  club- 
house, town  hall,  dancing  pavilion,  and  tavern.  Women  are 
indeed  excluded  at  certain  times,  but  there  is  no  general 
prohibition  against  their  admission.  On  the  contrary,  they 
bring  food  to  the  men's  house  twice  or  three  times  a  day, 
sitting  by  their  relatives  during  the  repast,  and  frequently 
not  only  attend  performances  but  take  an  active  part  in 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  309 

them.  In  the  Hght  of  all  these  facts  Hearne's  observation 
that  the  Chipewyan  of  the  Mackenzie  River  region  excluded 
women  from  all  dances  and  took  pains  to  segregate  even 
young  boys  and  girls  with  the  vigilance  of  an  English  gov- 
erness must  stand  as  anomalous.  This  point  of  view  rep- 
resents a  'sport/  a  deviation  from  the  typical  attitude  not 
only  of  North  American  Indians  generally  but  of  the  North- 
ern Athabaskans  as  well,  since  other  members  of  that  fam- 
ily, such  as  the  Dogribs,  are  known  to  permit  the  joint  par- 
ticipation of  both  sexes  in  dancing. 

To  sum  up,  the  North  American  Indians  neither  display 
that  masculine  exclusiveness  which  would  divide  a  tribe  into 
sex  moieties,  nor  are  their  women  devoid  of  gregariousness 
since  they  join  men  socially  when  they  are  allowed  to  do  so 
and  also  by  no  means  rarely  have  founded  associations  of 
their  own.  That  these  are  fewer  in  number  than  the  men's 
can  be  readily  accounted  for  in  the  manner  suggested  above 
without  recourse  to  the  mystical  absence  of  an  instinct  of 
sociability. 

The  African  phenomena,  on  the  whole,  fall  in  line  with 
those  from  North  America.  Notwithstanding  the  usually 
inferior  status  of  women,  there  is  generally  free  interming- 
ling of  the  sexes  in  social  intercourse.  It  is  true  that,  espe- 
cially on  the  West  Coast,  there  are  secret  societies  to  which 
women  are  not  admitted  but,  as  Radin  has  pointed  out,  the 
number  of  parallel  women  societies  is  considerable.  Some 
of  the  men's  organizations  are  charged  with  military  and 
juridical  functions,  others  devote  themselves  largely  to  the 
chastisement  of  adulterous  wives,  so  that  the  exclusion  of 
women  is  natural.  Far  more  significant  is  the  positive  fact 
that  the  women's  societies  are  not  only  fairly  numerous  but 
of  social  importance.  Thus  the  men's  Poro  society  of  the 
Mendi  in  Sierra  Leone  is  balanced  by  the  women's  Bundu ; 
and  while  it  might  be  an  exaggeration  to  claim  equal  rank 
for  the  latter,  its  sacred  character  is  acknowledged  by  the 
male  population.    "No  man  would  under  any  consideration 


3IO  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

venture  to  approach  the  'Bundu  bush,'  for  the  mystic  work- 
ings of  the  'Bundu  medicine'  upon  any  deHnquent  are  be- 
heved  to  be  exceedingly  severe;  and  this  belief  is  so  firmly 
rooted  in  the  minds  of  all  men  that  Bundu  girls  when  under 
the  protection  of  the  Bundu  medicine  can  walk  about  unat- 
tended within  bounds,  knowing  that  they  are  perfectly  se- 
cure from  the  smallest  molestation."  For  a  region  some- 
what farther  south  Miss  Kingsley  reports  that  a  man  who 
should  penetrate  into  the  female  mysteries  would  be  killed 
just  as  a  woman  would  be  put  to  death  if  she  encroached  on 
the  privacy  of  a  men's  secret  gathering.  The  women's 
organizations  are  at  least  often  connected  with  the  initia- 
tion of  girls  at  the  age  of  puberty,  and  it  is  worth  noting 
that  the  African  girls'  introduction  to  the  status  of  maturity 
is  often  conducted  with  as  much  solemnity  as  the  equivalent 
rites  for  the  boys.  This  certainly  does  not  hold  true  for 
Australia  nor,  so  far  as  I  know,  for  Melanesia. 

Altogether  there  is  no  rigid  separation  of  the  sexes  in 
Africa;  and  while  ceremonial  segregation  occurs,  it  differs 
toto  coelo  from  that  reported  for  Australia  and  Melanesia 
since  the  women  do  not  always  form  an  unorganized  con- 
geries of  individuals  but  often  constitute  tribal  or  more 
restricted  societies  of  their  own.  Considering  that  for  a 
very  large  portion  of  Asia  Schurtz  himself  could  discover 
no  male  tribal  society  nor  indeed  any  other  association,  we 
must  repudiate  as  unwarranted  the  doctrine  of  virtually  ab- 
solute unsociability  as  a  secondary  sexual  trait  of  woman- 
kind. Schurtz  has  mistaken  a  phenomenon  of  restricted 
geographical  distribution  for  one  of  universal  range;  and 
even  within  the  area  favorable  to  his  view  he  has  ignored 
the  difference  between  an  institutional  result  and  an  organic 
disability.  When  the  influence  of  the  division  of  labor  com- 
bined with  that  of  the  male  gerontocracy  in  Australia  or 
of  the  male  club  in  the  Banks  Islands  are  shown  to  be  favor- 
able or  at  least  not  antagonistic  to  the  formation  of  women's 
associations,  then  and  only  then  it  will  be  possible  to  inter- 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  311 

pret  the  paucity  of  sororities  in  direct  psychological  terms 
implying  greater  or  lesser  gregariousness. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  sex  in  relation  to  associa- 
tions, I  must  briefly  deal  with  a  subject  of  apparent  triviality 
but  of  the  utmost  ethnographic  interest.  In  the  sketch  of 
Australian  initiation  rites  mention  was  made  of  the  bull- 
roarer,  the  buzzing  musical  implement  tabooed  to  women. 
The  care  taken  to  prevent  the  uninitiated  from  learning 
that  this  simple  device  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  weird 
sounds  heard  by  them  is  extremely  ludicrous ;  it  appears  as 
though  the  essence  of  all  the  mysteries  centers  in  the  pro- 
duction of  the  whirring  noise,  as  if  all  the  pother  and  pain 
of  a  protracted  ritual  came  to  a  climax  from  the  native 
point  of  view  when  the  boys  were  told  how  to  make  a  little 
slat  boom  through  the  air.  It  is  sufficiently  remarkable  that 
the  death  penalty  was  inflicted  on  a  woman  who  discovered 
the  secret  and  on  the  man  who  divulged  it.  But  far  more 
striking  is  the  occurrence  of  the  same  association  of  ideas 
in  different  regions  of  the  globe,  Thei  following  samples 
will  suffice  for  illustration. 

Among  the  Central  Australian  Urabunna  the  uninitiated 
are  taught  to  believe  that  the  sound  is  the  voice  of  a  spirit 
"who  takes  the  boy  away,  cuts  out  all  his  insides,  provides 
him  wath  a  new  set,  and  brings  him  back  an  initiated  youth. 
The  boy  is  told  that  he  must  on  no  account  allow  a  w'oman 
or  child  to  see  the  stick,  or  else  he  and  his  mother  and  sis- 
ters will  tumble  down  as  dead  as  stones."  Farther  north 
the  Anula  of  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria  tell  their  women  that 
the  whirring  of  the  bull-roarer  is  made  by  a  spirit  who  swal- 
lows and  afterwards  disgorges  the  boy  in  the  form  of  an 
initiated  youth.  At  the  initiation  of  the  Bukaua,  wdio  live 
about  Huon  Gulf,  New  Guinea,  the  novices'  mothers  are 
told  that  the  booming  of  the  leaf-shaped  slats  is  the  voice 
of  an  insatiable  ogre  that  swallows  and  then  spew^s  out 
young  lads.  In  the  Solomons  and  the  French  Islands  the 
bull-roarer  is  likewise  kept  secret  from  women,  who  believe 


312  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

that  the  strange  noise  represents  the  voice  of  a  spirit,  and 
the  Sulka  of  New  Britain  impress  upon  them  the  additional 
fact  that  this  being  occasionally  devours  the  uninitiated. 
The  foregoing  illustrations  are  culled  from  the  Australian 
and  Oceanian  literature.  But  what  shall  we  say  when  simi- 
lar conceptions  appear  in  various  parts  of  Africa?  The 
Ekoi  of  South  Nigeria  allow  no  woman  to  see  the  bull- 
roarers  or  to  know  the  cause  of  the  sounds  they  produce, 
and  similar  regulations  are  reported  from  the  far-off  Nandi 
in  East  Africa.  Among  the  Yoruba  the  women  are  indeed 
permitted  to  view  and  even  handle  the  bull-roarers,  but 
under  no  condition  must  they  see  one  in  motion.  A  jocular 
gesture  of  Dr.  Frobenius'  suggesting  that  he  was  about  to 
whirl  it  through  the  air  sufficed  to  throw  the  females  into 
fits,  and  it  is  reported  that  in  ancient  times  women  who  ap- 
peared during  a  procession  of  the  men's  society  when  these 
implements  were  swung  through  the  air  were  mercilessly 
put  to  death.  Finally  must  be  cited  a  South  American  in- 
stance. The  Bororo  of  central  Brazil  have  mortuary  rites 
at  which  bull-roarers  are  swung,  this  being  the  signal  for  all 
the  women  to  run  into  the  woods  or  hide  at  home  lest  they 
die.  Here  the  belief  is  shared  by  the  men  that  the  mere 
sight  of  a  bull-roarer  would  automatically  cause  a  woman's 
death  and  Dr.  von  den  Steinen  was  cautioned  to  avoid  fa- 
talities by  never  showing  a  purchased  specimen  to  the 
women  or  children. 

These  resemblances  are  hardly  of  a  character  to  be  ig- 
nored. They  aroused  the  interest  of  Andrew  Lang,  who 
explained  them  as  the  result  of  "similar  minds,  working 
with  simple  means  towards  similar  ends"  and  expressly  re- 
pudiated the  "need  for  a  hypothesis  of  common  origin,  or 
of  borrowing,  to  account  for  this  widely  diffused  sacred 
object."  In  this  interpretation  he  has  1)een  followed  by  Pro- 
fessor von  der  Steinen,  who  remarks  that  so  simple  a  con- 
trivance as  a  l3oard  attached  to  a  string  can  hardly  be  re- 
garded as  so  severe  a  tax  on  human  ingenuity  as  to  require 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  313 

the  hypothesis  of  a  single  invention  throughout  the  history 
of  civiHzation.  But  this  is  to  mistake  the  problem.  The 
question  is  not  whether  the  bull-roarer  has  been  invented 
once  or  a  dozen  times,  nor  even  whether  this  simple  toy  has 
once  or  frequently  entered  ceremonial  associations.  I  have 
myself  seen  priests  of  the  Hopi  Flute  fraternity  whirl  bull- 
roarers  on  extremely  solemn  occasions,  but  the  thought  of 
a  connection  with  Australian  or  African  mysteries  never 
obtruded  itself  because  there  was  no  suggestion  that  women 
must  be  excluded  from  the  range  of  the  instrument.  There 
lies  the  crux  of  the  matter.  Why  do  Brazilians  and  Central 
Australians  deem  it  death  for  a  woman  to  see  the  bull- 
roarer?  Why  this  punctilious  insistence  on  keeping  her  in 
the  dark  on  this  subject  in  West  and  East  Africa  and 
Oceania?  I  know  of  no  psychological  principle  that  would 
urge  the  Ekoi  and  the  Bororo  mind  to  bar  women  from 
knowledge  about  bull-roarers  and  until  such  a  principle  is 
brought  to  light  I  do  not  hesitate  to  accept  diffusion  from 
a  common  center  as  the  more  probable  assumption.  This 
would  involve  historical  connection  between  the  rituals  of 
initiation  into  the  male  tribal  societies  of  Australia,  New 
Guinea,  Melanesia,  and  Africa  and  would  still  further  con- 
firm the  conclusion  that  sex  dichotomy  is  not  a  universal 
phenomenon  springing  spontaneously  from  the  demands  of 
human  nature  but  an  ethnographical  feature  originating  in  a 
single  center  and  thence  transmitted  to  other  regions.^ 

Age-Classes 

Coordinate  in  Schurtz's  system  with  the  doctrine  of  a 
sexual  difference  that  leads  men  to  form  associations  and 
women  to  cling  to  kinship  units  is  the  principle  that  the 
associations  created  by  male  solidarity  are  one  and  all  de- 
rived from  age-classes.  But  the  value  of  these  two  comple- 
mentary tenets  must  be  very  differently  estimated.  The 
former  proved  an  unacceptable  generalization  caused  by 


314  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

the  theorist's  submersion  in  a  special  set  of  ethnographic 
data.  On  the  other  hand,  the  conception  of  society  as  a 
structure  segmented  into  age-layers,  while  developed  by 
Schurtz  with  one-sided  emphasis  on  a  particular  type  of  age- 
stratification,  reveals  genuine  insight  into  sociological  dy- 
namics. If,  disregarding  at  first  his  special  formulation  of 
the  age  factor,  we  attach  ourselves  solely  to  the  general 
principle,  its  importance  must  be  acknowledged  as  over- 
whelming. In  the  family  itself,  as  Schurtz  insisted,  there 
is  that  opposition  between  the  older  and  the  younger  gener- 
ation to  which  Turgenev  has  given  classical  expression  in 
Fathers  and  Sons.  To  transcend  the  limitations  of  one's 
years  requires  an  effort  of  imagination  almost  beyond  the 
reach  of  genius.  The  old  people  piquing  themselves  on 
their  fund  of  experience  never  learn  the  wisdom  of  not  giv- 
ing advice  that  will  not  and  cannot  be  heeded  and  remain 
unconscious  of  the  fathomless  boredom  into  which  their 
futile  prolixities  of  reminiscence  plunge  the  impatient  lis- 
tener. The  young,  inclined  to  brush  aside  their  elders  as  at 
best  well-intentioned  dotards,  have  not  the  prophetic  gift 
to  divine  that  all  need  not  be  senility  that  is  not  grist  to 
their  mill.  Often  rupture  may  indeed  be  avoided  but  there 
is  ever  the  latent  possibility  of  discord  and  the  manifest  in- 
compatibility of  thoughts,  tastes,  and  modes  of  living.  Of 
course  the  estrangement  is  not  limited  to  the  confines  of  the 
family  because  in  essence  It  is  not  a  personal  but  a  class 
struggle.  Hence  any  mixed  assemblage  will  reveal  the  same 
cleavage,  the  same  clash  of  temperaments  that  divides 
fathers  and  sons,  mothers  and  daughters.  What  gathering 
might  be  supposed  to  be  freer  from  the  imperfections  of 
human  frailty  than  a  meeting  of  scientific  men?  Yet  on 
such  occasions  it  requires  little  penetration  to  sense  the  ill- 
suppressed  contempt  the  youthful  knight-errant  of  truth 
entertains  for  the  old-fogyism  of  his  elders,  while  the  pat- 
ronizing cynicism  with  which  some  of  these  flout  his  high- 
flown  notions  is  only  surpassed  by  the  supreme  indifference 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  315 

with  which  others  greet  suggestions  not  emanating  from 
their  own  ranks.  Now  this  grouping  and  differentiation  is 
far  too  deeply  rooted  in  human  nature  not  to  loom  largely 
amidst  all  the  flux  of  cultural  variation,  though  the  class  of 
greatest  prominence  will  vary,  as  will  the  ideals  of  the  age- 
classes.  In  Australian  public  life  the  absolute  dominance  of 
the  elders  is  the  most  conspicuous  phenomenon ;  among  the 
warlike  Masai  the  fighting  bachelor  braves  hold  the  social 
hegemony;  and  in  some  Plains  Indian  communities  there 
was  a  constant  antagonism  between  the  young  men 
eager  to  distinguish  themselves  in  raids  against  hostile 
tribes  and  the  prudent  chiefs  seeking  to  prevent  a  hazard- 
ous warparty. 

So  far,  then,  Schurtz  is  eminently  on  the  right  track. 
Where  he  errs  is  in  taking  it  for  granted  that  this  inveter- 
ate tendency  must  always  be  formally  organized,  that  where 
it  is  so  recognized  it  invariably  goes  back  to  a  tripartite 
organization  of  society  into  boys,  bachelors,  and  married 
men,  and  that  this  scheme  represents  the  oldest  form  of  as- 
sociation. This  is  again  an  unwarrantable  generalization, 
probably  founded  on  the  picturesque  aspects  of  Masai  and 
Bororo  life.  Approaching  without  prepossession  the  facts 
concerning  the  graded  club  of  Melanesia,  we  do  not  detect 
any  evidence  of  discrimination  between  single  and  married 
men;  indeed,  such  a  distinction  would  be  alien  to  the  plan 
of  the  club.  It  is  true  that  in  other  parts  of  Oceania  the 
division  of  males  is  at  least  partly  on  this  basis  since  the 
bachelors  have  their  separate  dormitory  while  the  benedicts 
sleep  with  their  wives.  But  this  constitutes  a  very  imper- 
fect division  of  classes,  because  the  married  men  often 
spend  most  of  the  daytime  in  the  single  men's  dormitory 
and  on  special  occasions  even  sleep  there,  as  in  Fiji. 
Schurtz,  as  was  pointed  out,  holds  that  the  dormitory  was 
first  of  all  a  bachelors'  hall,  which  only  secondarily  assumed 
the  additional  character  of  a  general  club  for  males.  But 
by  what  process  does  he  arrive  at  this  conclusion?     If  we 


3i6  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

pass  in  review  a  narrowly  circumscribed  section  of  New 
Guinea,  the  following  variations  of  custom  confront  us : 
The  Bukaua  have  council-chambers  serving  as  bachelors' 
and  guests'  halls,  but  where  the  married  men  of  the  village 
also  occasionally  sleep,  while  the  deliberations  of  all  the 
men  are  conducted  on  the  platforms  of  these  public  struc- 
tures ;  the  Kai  have  public  houses  only  for  the  circumcision 
ritual,  guests  being  entertained  by  the  chief  and  each  family 
occupying  a  separate  hut ;  farther  inland  there  is  complete 
separation  of  the  sexes,  the  men  living  in  houses  of  their 
own.  Now,  what  criterion  is  there  for  determining  the  rela- 
tive priority  of  these  several  conditions?  Considering  the 
undoubted  tendency  to  sex  dichotomy  in  this  region,  would 
it  not  be  quite  defensible  to  say  that  the  last-mentioned 
stage  was  chronologically  the  first,  that  married  men  subse- 
quently came  to  live  with  their  wives,  leaving  the  bachelors 
in  possession  of  the  dormitory  which  formerly  had  shel- 
tered married  and  single  men  alike?  On  this  assumption 
there  would  be  first  a  dual  division  of  the  tribe  into  initiated 
and  uninitiated,  and  only  for  the  specific  purpose  of  sleeping 
there  would  be  a  secondary  segmentation  of  the  initiated. 
The  hypothesis  is  not  one  whit  more  arbitrary  than 
Schurtz's  and  seems  more  plausible  in  the  light  of  relevant 
information. 

In  Africa  there  are  peoples  among  whom  the  difference 
in  connubial  status  established  a  basic  classification.  The 
Masai  customs  have  been  described  and  the  Zulu  under 
King  Chaka  may  be  cited  as  an  additional  example,  since 
their  ruler  segregated  his  warriors  as  a  bachelors'  group 
from  the  ranks  of  the  married.  But  in  many  other  tribes 
the  distinction  produces  no  division  of  society;  the  initiates 
form  one  class  irrespective  of  conjugal  condition. 

Asia  is  admitted  by  Schurtz  to  be  meagerly  provided  with 
tripartite  schemes  of  organization  except  in  the  extreme 
south,  that  is,  within  the  pale  of  Malaysian  influences.  The 
Andaman  Islanders,  though  of  Negrito  race,  were  evidently 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  317 

not  beyond  the  reach  of  this  cultural  stream.  It  is  signifi- 
cant that  they  segregate  not  only  the  bachelors  but  the 
spinsters  as  well.  Now  this  double  segregation  has  a  rela- 
tively limited  distribution  in  the  world.  It  does  occur,  how- 
ever, among  such  Philippine  tril>es  as  the  Bontoc  Igorot, 
also  in  Sumatra,  among  the  Naga  of  Assam  and  the  Dravi- 
dians  of  southern  India.  That  the  Andaman  Negrito  share 
so  characteristic  a  variant  of  the  institution  under  discus- 
sion with  tril^es  so  close  at  hand,  cannot  be  considered  an 
accident:  we  must  assume  that  they  borrowed  the  custom, 
as  they  presumably  borrowed  other  elements  of  their  cul- 
ture, such  as  the  outrigger  canoe,  from  more  advanced  pop- 
ulations with  which  they  came  into  contact.  This  point  is 
an  important  one,  for  the  spontaneous  evolution  of  a  bache- 
lors' group  among  the  Andaman  Islanders  would  not  only 
support  Schurtz's  theory  that  the  tripartite  scheme  is  a  nat- 
ural social  construct,  but  would  also  go  far  to  prop  up  his 
chronology  since  so  rude  a  people  as  the  Andaman  Islanders 
might  be  expected  to  preserve  a  primeval  plan  of  organi- 
zation. 

It  is,  however.  North  America  that  supplies  the  most 
crushing  refutation  of  Schurtz's  theory.  Apart  from  the 
faint  suggestions  of  a  bachelors'  group  in  the  Southwest 
and  in  Alaskan  Eskimo  territor}^  the  difference  between  the 
single  and  married  men  has  failed  to  leave  any  impress  on 
social  structure.  Even  where  bachelors'  dormitories  are  re- 
ported there  is  no  evidence  that  the  implied  grouping  was 
fundamental.  Certainly  all  initiated  males  irrespective  of 
matrimonial  status  were  united  in  the  tribal  society  of  the 
Zufii  or  Hopi,  and  a  host  of  other  bonds  were  quite  inde- 
pendent of  this  factor.  Schurtz  conjectures  that  the  North 
Calif ornian  sweathouse  formed  only  the  bachelors'  sleep- 
ing-quarters, but  this  is  contrary  to  the  facts. 

However  meager  may  be  the  North  American  evidence 
for  a  separation  of  the  married  from  the  single  men,  that 
for  a  formal  distinction  between  initiated  youths  and  un- 


3i8  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

initiated  boys  is  practically  lacking  except  for  the  Pueblo 
phenomenon  already  cited.  In  his  desire  to  establish  es- 
sentially uniform  lines  of  development  for  distinct  regions 
Schurtz  postulates  the  equivalence  of  the  American  boy's 
puberty  fast  and  the  Australian  or  African  boy's  initiation 
festival.  But  this  is  perhaps  the  most  infelicitous  of  his 
conceptions,  though  it  has  unfortunately  been  adopted  by 
Professor  Webster.  The  initiation  ritual  of,  say,  the 
Arunta  or  the  Masai  is  tribal  business,  is  an  indispensable 
stage  in  the  individual's  life  since  not  to  be  initiated  is  not 
to  marry.  But  whether  an  Hidatsa  or  Crow  youth  retires 
to  the  seclusion  of  a  bald  hilltop,  mortifying  his  flesh  in 
supplication  of  supernatural  beings,  is  no  concern  of  the 
community  at  all,  is  a  personal  or  at  best  a  family  affair. 
If  he  succeeds  in  gaining  a  vision,  so  much  the  better  for 
him;  but  if  he  fails,  there  is  no  communal  reproach.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  far  from  all  Plains  Indians  obtained  a 
revelation.  This  would  exclude  them  from  certain  Omaha 
organizations  founded  on  particular  types  of  supernatural 
blessing,  but  in  general  it  did  not  affect  their  social  position, 
certainly  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  their  matrimonial 
chances.  Moreover,  the  quest  of  a  vision  was  not  neces- 
sarily coincident  even  with  approximate  puberty.  Among 
the  Arapaho,  indeed,  it  was  usually  the  middle-aged  who 
attempted  to  secure  guardian  spirits.  To  be  sure,  this  is 
rather  anomalous,  but  the  reason  for  courting  divine  favor 
at  an  earlier  age  is  plain.  The  ambitious  young  Plains  In- 
dian desired  distinction  on  the  battlefield.  He  had  before 
him  the  precedent  of  men  who  had  fasted  and  perhaps  tor- 
tured themselves,  who  had  seen  a  vision  in  consequence  and 
subsequently  won  renown,  which  they  ascribed  to  their 
revelation.  Hence  nothing  was  more  natural  than  for  the 
aspirant  to  tribal  glory  to  emulate  the  example  set  by  these 
men  at  a  fairly  early  opportunity,  though  often  rather 
later  than  the  age  of  physiological  maturity.  The  mortifica- 
tion he  underwent  was  not  compulsory  but  voluntarily  in- 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  319 

flicted  by  himself  and  solely  in  the  hope  of  arousing  the 
commiseration  of  the  powers  of  the  universe.  There  was 
thus  no  resemblance  with  the  tortures  to  which  an  Arunta 
or  Masai  lad  was  obliged  to  submit.  In  short,  the  North 
American  puberty  fast  was  not  a  tribal  initiation  ceremony, 
led  to  no  bachelors'  group  as  distinguished  from  uninitiated 
boys,  and  often  was  not  even  a  puberty  rite. 

As  though  the  North  American  data  were  bound  to  fly 
in  the  face  of  Schurtz's  system,  the  very  region  of  the 
globe  where  adolescent  ceremonies  for  males  are  remark- 
able for  their  rarity  is  conspicuous  for  girls'  puberty  festi- 
vals or  at  least  for  a  definite  procedure  at  the  time  of  the 
first  menses.  Fairly  elaborate  celebrations  of  this  type  took 
place  among  such  diverse  tribes  as  the  Apache,  the  Dakota, 
and  the  Shasta.  This,  it  is  true,  did  not  lead  to  the  organi- 
zation of  a  definite  social  unit,  but  it  remains  noteworthy 
that  while  the  existence  of  formalities  furnished  the  basis 
for  a  possible  classification  of  females,  the  general  lack  of 
boys'  puberty  rites  was  unfavorable  to  an  equivalent  group- 
ing of  males. 

Thus,  while  the  age  factor  must  be  recognized  as  a  real 
determinant  of  social  life,  as  will  be  further  illustrated 
below,  the  particular  conception  of  a  triple  classification  of 
males  based  on  the  age  factor  as  modified  by  the  conven- 
tional usages  of  initiation  and  matrimony  must  be  rejected 
as  inadequate. 

Varieties  of  Associations 

It  v^ould  be  possible  to  continue  an  analysis  of  Schurtz's 
system  along  the  lines  hitherto  followed,  but  another  avenue 
of  approach  seems  more  profitable.  Let  us  shift  the  center 
of  interest  from  the  operation  of  his  several  principles 
throughout  the  world  to  a  consideration  of  the  associational 
instrumentalities  of  a  single  restricted  cultural  province.  I 
will  select  for  this  purpose  the  Plains  area  of  North  Amer- 


320  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

ica.  I  intend  first  to  summarize  the  main  varieties  of  as- 
sociations that  confront  the  observer  there ;  and  shall  then 
proceed  to  study  the  history  of  that  particular  type  already 
described  under  the  head  of  age-societies. 

As  a  diminutive  association  of  altogether  peculiar  char- 
acter may  be  cited  the  union  of  two  unrelated  friends 
pledged  to  mutual  support  and  life-long  comradeship.  This 
Damon-Pythias  relationship  flourished  especially  among  the 
Dakota  and  their  congeners.  The  moral  obligations  in- 
volved are  well  illustrated  in  an  Assiniboin  tale,  where  a 
father  disowns  his  son  for  having  been  a  disloyal  comrade, 
while  the  deceived  friend  is  so  overwhelmed  with  shame 
that  he  retires  into  voluntary  exile.  In  the  formation  of 
these  friendships  the  age  factor  undoubtedly  played  a  domi- 
nant part;  but  the  exclusiveness  of  the  bond  established  a 
type  of  association  very  different  from  that  contemplated 
by  Schurtz.  There  were  created  an  indefinite  number  of 
friendly  couples,  representing  so  many  independent  social 
units  without  forming  a  complete  cross-section  of  society 
along  lines  of  age  cleavage. 

Of  a  wholly  different  cast  are  associations  based  on  a 
common  supernatural  experience.  This  type  of  society 
might  be  expected  to  flourish  throughout  the  entire  area 
since  all  the  Plains  Indians  seek  visions  and  nothing  seems 
more  natural  than  that  persons  with  like  guardian  spirits 
should  develop  a  sense  of  social  solidarity.  Yet  empiric- 
ally this  result  has  been  effected  only  in  the  south  and 
among  such  intermediate  tribes  as  the  Dakota.  An  unusual 
efflorescence  has  1)een  recorded  among  the  Omaha,  where 
persons  with  visions  of  the  Buffalo,  the  Thunder,  and  so 
forth,  congregate  in  shamanistic  organizations,  sometimes 
charged  with  surgical  functions  and  of  course  always  of 
distinctly  religious  character.  These  groups,  as  might  be 
supposed,  embraced  persons  of  various  ages  and  as  a  rule 
did  not  exclude  women.  They  thus  deviated  as  widely  as 
possible  from  Schurtz's  primeval  type  of  association;  yet 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  321 

their  importance  in  Omaha  life  indicates  that  they  represent 
a  very  old  cuUural  possession  of  the  tribe.  On  the  other 
hand,  certain  feastmg  societies  of  the  Omaha  roughly  rep- 
resentative of  age-classes  are  of  hardly  any  significance. 
There  are  three  of  these,  the  mature  men,  the  young  men, 
and  youths,  each  group  meeting  as  a  distinct  set  of  mess- 
mates. Schurtz  does  not  fail  to  impress  this  fact  into  the 
service  of  his  tripartite  scheme  and  contends  that  it  repre- 
sents the  relic  of  a  primeval  three-class  system,  which  of 
course  must  have  antedated  all  other  forms  of  association. 
What  there  is  in  Omaha  history  to  suggest  the  priority  of 
these  commensalities,  he  does  not  deign  to  inform  us.  De- 
void of  any  serious  function,  they  played  so  subordinate 
a  part  as  not  even  to  be  mentioned  in  Miss  Fletcher's  and 
Mr.  La  Flesche's  bulky  monograph.  To  us  the  case  is 
nevertheless  important  as  showing  that  the  age  factor  tends 
to  assert  itself  in  manifold  and  even  trivial  ways,  not  neces- 
sarily in  a  basic  classification  of  an  entire  community. 
Given  the  restricted  distribution  of  the  commensalities  and 
their  lack  of  importance  in  Omaha  society,  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  they  represent  an  incidental  development, 
later  than  the  religious  corporations  which  rest  on  one  of 
the  most  essential  features  of  their  culture. 

Even  more  suggestive  is  the  case  of  two  Omaha  dance 
organizations  corresponding  to  the  Dogs  and  the  Foxes  of 
northern  tribes.  Among  the  Omaha  the  former  included 
exclusively  aged  and  mature  men,  the  latter  being  com- 
posed of  boys.  Here,  then,  there  is  a  clear-cut  age-stratifi- 
cation. The  only  question  is  how  far  it  dates  back.  For- 
tunately the  history  of  these  societies  is  known.  The 
Omaha  derived  both  of  them  in  recent  years  from  the 
Ponca,  who  in  turn  borrowed  them  from  a  Dakota  band. 
Now  the  Ponca  do  not  grade  these  associations  at  all;  in- 
deed, among  them  the  societies  which  for  simplicity's  sake 
I  will  simply  call  the  Dogs  and  the  Foxes  are  rivals  steal- 
ing each  other's  wives  on  equal  terms.     The  Dakota  likcr- 


322  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

wise  treat  both  organizations  as  coordinate  yet  have  the 
germ  of  an  age-classification.  Their  Foxes  comprised  mid- 
dle-aged men  as  well  as  young  boys,  while  the  Dogs  had  on 
the  average  an  older  membership,  though  promising  youths 
were  not  positively  barred.  The  theoretical  implications 
of  these  facts  are  exceedingly  interesting.  Since  the  Ponca 
organizations  were  not  graded  by  age  and  at  best  retained 
in  submerged  form  the  rudiments  of  an  age-classification 
from  their  Dakota  prototype,  the  application  of  the  age 
principle  represents  an  independent  Omaha  addition.  That 
is  to  say,  age  enters  at  a  late  stage  in  the  history  of  these 
societies;  and  from  the  Omaha  point  of  view  it  also  enters 
in  recent  times ;  moreover,  not  in  the  ancient  and  most 
characteristic  organizations,  but  in  those  of  demonstrably 
alien  origin.  This  beautifully  attests  the  vigor  of  the  age 
factor,  and  we  certainly  cannot  deny  that  it  may  have  mani- 
fested itself  sporadically  at  earlier  periods  as  well.  Of  that, 
however,  we  have  no  evidence.  We  know  only  that  among 
the  Omaha  it  is  not  the  basis  of  the  old  societies  and  has 
been  recently  imposed  on  borrowed  organizations. 

The  Foxes  and  the  Dogs  introduce  us  to  the  category  of 
military  societies  so-called.  But  since  from  the  present 
point  of  view  mode  of  admission  is  more  significant  than 
function,  we  must  subdivide  them  into  at  least  two  disparate 
types,  those  conforming  to  the  Crow  pattern  and  those 
following  the  Hidatsa  model.  The  former,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, are  ungraded  and  either  invite  members  or  per- 
mit joining  at  will ;  the  latter  are  graded  by  age  and  can 
be  entered  only  on  payment  of  a  fee.  Here,  then,  we  have 
one  type  that  rests  on  a  blending  of  age  and  purchase;  an- 
other that  is  independent  of  age.  But  since  the  evolution 
of  the  ungraded  from  the  graded  societies  is  conceivable,  a 
special  consideration  of  this  case  will  be  given  below. 

However,  there  are  societies  of  various  functions  with 
membership  unrelated  with  age  and  dependent  on  pay- 
ments.   The  Tobacco  order  of  the  Crow  falls  into  this  cate- 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  323" 

gory,  and  so  do  the  Cheyenne  women's  craft  guilds,  which 
have  already  been  described  from  another  angle.  In  the 
Hidatsa  bundle  fraternities,  correlated  with  the  most  sacred 
ceremonials  of  the  tribe,  membership  is  hereditary  but  must 
be  validated  by  appropriate  fees. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  exhaust  the  assortment  of  Plains 
Indian  associations.  Enough  has  been  cited  by  way  of  illus- 
tration to  show  that  the  qualifications  for  entrance  vary, 
that  age  appears  as  one  of  two  factors  in  some  of  the  mili- 
tary societies,  but  simply  on  the  face  value  of  the  findings 
it  is  not  obvious  that  it  is  the  fundamental  one.  The  tri- 
partite scheme,  moreover,  occurs  only  in  the  insignificant 
trio  of  Omaha  feasting  groups.  Certainly  it  is  the  height 
of  arbitrariness  to  decree  that  a  feature  of  relatively  re- 
stricted range  within  the  area,  and  virtually  absent  in  what 
Schurtz  considers  the  typical  form,  must  have  been  the  most 
ancient,  the  one  on  which  all  the  others  have  been  super- 
imposed. How,  it  might  be  asked,  could  such  a  notion  as 
that  of  a  common  vision  as  the  basis  of  association  evolve 
out  of  the  quite  different  notion  of  an  age  grouping,  let 
alone,  a  congregation  of  bachelors  or  of  married  men? 
Where  is  the  terthim  quid?  And  if  it  did  not  evolve,  if  its 
origin  is  independent,  why  could  it  not  have  antedated  the 
age  factor  as  a  formal  mode  of  classification?  These  are 
questions  a  disciple  of  Schurtz  might  find  it  difficult  to 
answer.  And  if  we  embraced  in  our  survey  the  entire 
globe,  we  should  of  course  encounter  still  other  principles 
of  solidarity,  rendering  a  monistic  reduction  of  the  entire 
series  of  associations  still  less  plausible.  But  it  is  more 
satisfactory  to  take  the  bull  by  the  horns,  to  examine  some- 
what more  carefully  the  history  of  an  ostensible  age-group- 
ing and  to  determine  in  how  far  it  bears  out  Schurtz' s  posi- 
tion or  sheds  light  on  the  general  theoretical  problems  in- 
volved. The  amount  of  material  accumulated  on  the  Plains 
Indian  age-societies  suggests  them  as  the  most  suitable  sub- 
ject for  critical  scrutiny. 


324  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

The  Plains  Indian  Age-Societies 

The  Hidatsa  system  of  age-societies  has  been  shown  to 
involve  an  age-classification  by  which  the  male  population 
is  divided  into  approximately  ten  classes  of  successively 
higher  degree,  each  with  its  distinctive  dance,  songs,  para- 
phernalia and  privileges.  At  the  same  time  promotion  to 
these  ranks  was  not  automatic  on  attainment  to  a  certain 
age  but  had  to  be  purchased  by  the  entire  class  of  coevals. 
This  scheme,  instead  of  being  confined  to  the  Hidatsa,  was 
shared  by  their  next-door  neighbors,  the  Mandan,  and  three 
other  tribes,  the  Blackfoot,  the  Arapaho  and  the  Gros  Ven- 
tre; hence  in  an  historical  reconstruction  the  five  variants 
must  be  considered  in  conjunction.  But  even  this  does  not 
suffice.  Though  the  scheme  of  organization,  a  blend  of  the 
age  and  purchase  factors,  is  limited  to  the  five  tribes  men- 
tioned, the  complexes  and  elements  characteristic  of  the 
degrees  are  far  more  widely  distributed. 

For  example,  the  Dog  degree  of  the  Hidatsa,  held  by 
mature  or  even  old  men,  has  among  its  badges  a  peculiar 
slit  sash,  a  dewclaw  rattle,  and  an  owl-feather  headdress. 
The  identical  emblems  are  used  by  the  Dog  society  of  the 
Crow,  which  comprises  men  of  varying  ages.  That  the  two 
complexes  have  sprung  from  one  source,  is  incontestable, 
but  who  borrowed  from  whom?  Indeed,  the  case  is  not 
nearly  so  simple  as  I  have  stated  it,  for  the  features  are 
shared  by  all  the  five  graded  tribes  and  by  several  peoples 
having  an  ungraded  series,  such  as  the  Cheyenne  and  Da- 
kota. Hence  on  the  basis  solely  of  the  facts  so  far  cited 
any  one  of  possibly  ten  tribes  might  have  evolved  the  Dog 
dance  and  it  might  have  traveled  back  and  forth  in  a  great 
number  of  ways.  Corresponding  questions  arise  for  Hi- 
datsa complexes  associated  with  other  degrees,  and  ac- 
cordingly specific  problems  develop  by  the  score.  From  a 
broader  point  of  view  it  is  of  course  not  the  historical 
minutiae  that  interest  us.     We  want  to  know  whether  a 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  325 

given  dance  common  to  the  graded  and  ungraded  systems 
was  originally  affiliated  with  an  age  group  or  not.  If  not, 
there  is  a  further  case  in  which  Schurtz's  sequence  is  simply 
inverted :  i.e.,  where  a  grouping  first  occurred  on  some  other 
basis  and  subsequently  became  an  age-grouping.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  Dog  or  Fox  or  Lumpwood  society  began  as 
a  society  of  age-mates,  Schurtz's  theory  would  to  that  ex- 
tent find  corroboration.  However,  another  question  would 
arise.  What  does  the  correlation  between  age  and  a  cer- 
tain dance  signify?  Does  it  mean  that  the  latter  is  linked 
with  men  of  a  particular  age,  say,  married  men,  or  young 
men,  or  men  from  sixty  to  seventy?  Or  does  it  mean  that 
the  particular  age  is  irrelevant  and  that  it  is  simply  essential 
for  all  meml>ers  to  be  coevals?  Finally,  if  we  are  dealing 
with  age-classes,  why  does  the  purchase  factor  obtrude  it- 
self on  our  notice? 

This  last  feature,  indeed,  provides  us  with  an  entering 
wedge.  It  is  not  merely  the  positive  correlation  of  pur- 
chase and  age  that  arrests  our  attention  but  the  equally  im- 
portant negative  correlation  between  purchase  and  the  un- 
graded military  societies.  In  a  real  age-stratification  pro- 
motion should  be  automatic.  Schurtz  asserts  that  this  was 
originally  the  case  here  but  that  later  the  idea  of  payment 
was  superimposed.  The  sequence,  then,  would  be :  first, 
automatic  advancement  with  age ;  later,  the  introduction  of 
some  other  qualification.  Very  well.  Lack  of  the  age  fac- 
tor and  purchase  would  then  both  belong  to  the  later  epoch. 
But,  if  so,  why  do  they  never  coincide  in  military  societies? 
The  allegedly  late  feature  of  purchase  clings  tenaciously  to 
the  one  postulated  as  the  earliest  feature  of  all  associations ; 
and  it  is  never  found  united  with  notions  more  or  less  con- 
temporaneous on  Schurtz's  scheme.  This  is  certainly  mys- 
terious. It  rather  suggests  that  something  is  wrong  with 
the  hypothetical  chronology,  that  the  bland  assumption  that 
the  age-societies  of  the  Plains  are  at  bottom  genuine  age- 
classes  may  be  without  foundation. 


326  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Let  us  begin  with  the  problem  whether  the  complexes  or 
degrees  in  the  age  series  represent  essentially  a  definite  age 
or  a  definite  rank  in  the  series.  For  this  purpose  we  can 
compare  equivalent  complexes  in  the  several  tribes;  and 
also  the  same  complex  at  different  periods  in  the  same  tribe. 
The  Dog  complex,  widely  spread  and  almost  always  linked 
with  an  important  society,  furnishes  a  favorable  instance. 
In  1833  Prince  Maximilian  found  that  the  Blackfoot  Dogs 
were  decidedly  young  men,  while  those  of  the  Hidatsa  and 
Mandan  were  middle-aged.  The  latter  conforms  to  their 
status  in  the  Arapaho  and  Gros  Ventre  series  as  determined 
by  Professor  Kroeber.  Judging  not  merely  by  a  counting 
of  noses  but  by  the  great  importance  of  this  organization 
throughout  the  Plains,  we  must  certainly  regard  the  early 
Blackfoot  condition  as  atypical.  Yet  it  is  impossible  to  say 
categorically  that  the  Dog  dance  belongs  essentially  to  the 
middle-aged  or  is  associated  with  any  other  particular  age 
for  the  simple  reason  that  its  age  connection  is  known  to 
have  varied  with  time  even  within  the  same  tribe.  The 
Blackfoot  of  forty  years  ago  assigned  to  the  Dogs  a  much 
higher  rank  than  they  had  done  in  the  'thirties  of  the  last 
century,  and  in  Hidatsa  society  they  represented  at  one 
time  the  status  of  very  old  men.  Other  complexes  suggest 
the  same  conclusion.  The  equally  common  Fox  society  was 
a  young  men's  company  among  the  Hidatsa,  with  the  Gros 
Ventre  it  represented  a  rather  older  group,  while  among 
the  Blackfoot  they  ranked  superior  to  the  Dogs  in  1833  and 
more  recently  all  but  reached  the  highest  place  in  the  series. 
The  Ravens  of  the  Blackfoot  were  middle-aged  in  Prince 
Maximilian's  day,  but  in  the  same  year  they  were  recruited 
from  the  very  oldest  Hidatsa.  Obviously,  then,  there  was 
no  essential  connection  of  a  certain  complex  with  a  special 
age  even  for  a  particular  people.  Since  a  complex  formed 
a  member  of  an  hierarchical  series,  it  was/  inevitable  that 
at  any  one  point  of  time  it  must  hold  a  definite  ordinal  rank, 
involving  a  more  or  less  definite  age  association  because 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  327 

age-mates  always  made  a  joint  purchase,  but  that  was  all. 
A  shifting  of  position,  whatever  may  have  been  the  cause, 
was  evidently  not  felt  as  an  outrage  on  the  eternal  fitness 
of  things ;  so  long  as  the  masters  of  a  complex  belonged  to 
the  same  age-class  it  mattered  little  whether  they  were 
fifteen  or  seventy. 

This  inference  is  even  more  conclusively  demonstrated 
by  the  autobiographical  statements  of  Indian  informants. 
With  the  breakdown  of  ancient  Hidatsa  and  Mandan  cus- 
tom under  modern  conditions  degrees  ceased  to  be  bought. 
The  men  who  normally  would  have  become  Bulls  or  Ravens 
lacked  a  chance  to  make  the  requisite  purchase,  and  so  on 
down  the  entire  scale.  Thus,  the  older  men  not  only  found 
it  impossible  to  buy  advancement  but  also  to  dispose  of 
their  membership  prerogatives  because  no  younger  group 
presented  itself  for  their  acquisition.  Now  the  startling 
truth  is  that  a  man  never  outgrew  the  membership  privi- 
leges acquired  in  youth,  as  would  be  the  case  if  the  age 
factor  were  the  dominant  one.  To  take  a  single  instance, 
a  man  named  Poor-wolf  considered  himself  at  90  the  mas- 
ter of  a  complex  bought  at  7;  of  another  obtained  at  20; 
of  a  third  held  since  he  was  about  27 ;  and  of  a  fourth 
purchased  at  about  45.  The  principle,  manifest  from  the 
objective  circumstances  and  definitely  formulated  by  the 
natives  themselves,  is  simply  that  a  man  owns  any  and  all 
complexes  he  has  ever  bought  provided  he  has  never  sold 
them.  A  man  cannot  at  90  class  himself  a  contemporary 
with  boys  of  7  and  it  is  a  monstrous  absurdity  for  any  one 
to  be  counted  a  member  of  three  or  four  distinct  age-classes 
at  the  same  time ;  but  he  can  very  well  hold  property  he  has 
secured  at  any  and  all  preceding  periods  of  his  life.  In 
other  words,  the  basic  notion  connected  with  a  degree  in 
the  series  is  ownership  of  purchased  property  rights  and 
the  age  element  is  wholly  subsidiary. 

This  conclusion  is  also  supported  by  certain  peculiarities 
of  the  Gros  Ventre  scheme.     Here  the  age-mates  do  not 


328  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

supersede  the  group  immediately  superior  to  their  own  but 
buy  the  coveted  ceremonial  privileges  from  a  heterogeneous 
assemblage  comprising  men  of  any  or  all  groups  that  at  one 
time  had  acquired  these  rights.  The  immeSlate  occasion 
for  a  purchase  was  always  a  vow  by  one  member  of  the 
group  that  on  recovery  from  illness  or  on  extrication  from 
some  difficulty  he  would  inaugurate  the  transaction.  In 
these  conditions  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  several  age- 
classes  from  simultaneously  holding  the  same  ceremonial 
complex,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  Gros  Ventre  had  sev- 
eral times  as  many  age-classes  as  dances,  each  dance  being 
the  property  of  several  classes.  It  was  these  classes  that 
were  the  social  units  involved.  There  was  nO'  bond  of  union 
allying  the  three  or  four  classes  owning  the  same  complex ; 
each  exercised  its  privileges  apart  from  the  rest  and  their 
distinctness  was  emphasized  by  distinct  designations,  which, 
unlike  their  dance  names,  were  not  altered  with  time  but 
persisted  through  life.  Thus,  a  man  shared  with  all  his 
class-mates  and  only  with  them  the  permanent  and  exclusive 
designation  of  'Holding-to-a-dog's-tail,'  but  he  was  a  Dog 
or  Fox  only  for  a  limited  period  and  shared  the  title  with 
men  of  his  own  and  of  several  other  age-classes  as  well.  In 
other  tribes  a  certain  complex  of  immaterial  rights  was  held 
exclusively  by  one  corporation ;  the  Gros  Ventre  permitted 
several  corporations  simultaneously  to  exercise  ownership 
over  the  same  complex,  but  this  of  course  did  not  imply 
abandonment  of  their  separate  identities.  It  was  simply 
as  though  several  firms,  say,  in  England,  France,  and  Amer- 
ica had  the  prerogative  of  publishing  a  certain  book.  In 
other  words,  while  the  Hidatsa  classes  could  simultaneously 
hold  complexes  of  the  most  varying  degree,  the  same  degree 
or  complex  was  simultaneously  held  by  a  number  of  distinct 
Gros  Ventre  classes.  The  complexes,  then,  were  simply 
negotiable  commodities,  which  a  priori  might  be  associated 
with  different  ages  or  different  degrees.  The  only  problem 
is  how  they  came  to  be  graded  in  a  series  associated  with 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  329 

age  differences.  Now  this  problem  resolves  itself  into  the 
problem  of  the  ultimate  origin  of  grades,  and  into  a  set  of 
special  questions  as  to  how  specific  complexes  were  added 
as  such  and  such  degrees.  Schurtz  is  not  very  much  con- 
cerned about  the  later  growth  of  the  system,  which  as  a 
matter  of  course  he  simply  treats  as  an  elaborated  form  of 
the  tripartite  division  of  the  tribes.  We,  however,  consider 
positive  historical  knowledge  as  to  recent  developments  the 
foundation  for  all  speculation  about  earlier  processes  and 
shall  accordingly  attach  more  weight  to  how  complexes 
have  actually  been  graded  within  the  historical  period. 

The  factor  that  has  clearly  had  the  deepest  influence  on 
the  later  growth  of  the  graded  system  is  the  imitation  or 
purchase  of  foreign  societies.  We  know  that  in  1833  the 
Mandan  lacked  the  Fox  society  and  that  subsequently  they 
borrowed  it  from  the  Hidatsa  and  incorporated  it  into  their 
own  scheme.  Similarly,  the  Hidatsa  adopted  the  Mandan 
Crazy  Dog  society,  and  the  Mandan  the  Hidatsa  Little  Dog 
organization.  The  Hidatsa  Stone  Hammers  of  Maximil- 
ian's time  had  acquired  the  Arikara  Hot  Dance,  by  which 
process  an  ungraded  complex  came  to  be  linked  with  a 
definite  degree.  It  was  subsequently  possible  for  the  Stone 
Hammers  either  to  merge  the  new  features  completely  in  the 
old  or  to  keep  the  two  complexes  dissociated  and  sell  them 
independently  of  each  other.  Though  the  matter  is  not 
absolutely  certain,  the  second  of  these  contingencies  was 
apparently  realized,  and  it  meant  that  a  new  degree  was 
added  to  the  series.  The  owners  when  approached  by  the 
next  younger  age-class  would  sell  them  either  only  the  Hot 
Dance  or  only  the  old  Stone  Hammer  complex.  In  the 
former  case  the  newly  bought  dance  would  become  the  low- 
est degree,  in  the  latter  the  second  lowest.  There  is  not 
the  slightest  doubt  that  this  type  of  process  went  on  long 
before  we  have  any  documentary  evidence  of  it.  For  ex- 
ample, the  Arapaho  and  Gros  Ventre  are  closely  related 
tribes  with  very  similar  graded  schemes,  and  the  Gros  Ven.- 


330  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

tre  after  their  separation  lived  with  the  Blackfoot.  One 
of  the  Gros  Ventre  deviations  from  the  Arapaho  scheme  is 
the  possession  of  a  Fly  dance  at  the  bottom  of  the  series. 
Such  a  dance  also  occurs  among  the  Blackfoot,  whence  it 
v^as  first  reported,  and  among  one  of  the  neighSoring  trfbes 
of  the  Blackfoot,  but  nowhere  else.  The  only  possible  in- 
ference is  that  the  Gros  Ventre  borrowed  it  from  the  Black- 
foot and  assimilated  it  to  their  system.  Now  this  incorpora- 
tion is  bound  to  affect  the  other  members  of  the  series,  all 
of  which  are  dislocated  in  relative  rank ;  and  wherever  a 
system  has  had  several  accretions  of  this  type  it  is  mani- 
fest that  an  extensive  shifting  of  status  must  have  taken 
place.  Everything  indicates  that  this  is  precisely  what  oc- 
curred, and  from  this  point  of  view  the  strange  anomalies 
as  to  the  rank  of  the  same  society  in  different  tribes  become 
intelligible.  If  the  Blackfoot  adopted  the  Dog  complex  at 
a  later  time  than  the  Fox  complex,  then  we  can  understand 
why  W'ith  characteristically  primitive  fondness  for  antiquity 
they  placed  the  novel  acquisition  farther  down  the  scale. 
In  other  cases  a  newly  purchased  society  may  have  been  of 
so  sacred  a  character  as  to  be  placed  at  the  top,  whereby  all 
the  older  degrees  would  be  correspondingly  degraded. 
Since  every  one  of  the  five  systems  has  demonstrably  de- 
veloped piecemeal  by  such  accretions,  it  follows  of  course 
that  the  several  complexes  could  not  have  more  than  a  hap- 
hazard connection  with  a  special  rank  or  age. 

But  diffusion  was  probably  not  the  only  agency  in  the 
elaboration  of  the  graded  series.  Given  such  a  scheme, 
there  would  be  a  natural  tendency  to  bring  other  complexes 
of  possibly  native  origin  into  relation  with  it.  This  is  what 
happened  in  the  case  of  the  Hidatsa  Notched-Stick  ritual. 
So  far  as  it  is  possible  to  judge,  this  was  an  indigenous 
performance  standing  apart  from  the  age-societies.  But  in 
one  of  the  Hidatsa  villages  the  notion  arose  of  integrating 
it  with  the  popular  scheme  and  accordingly  it  was  added  as 
the  lowest  degree.    The  further  consequences  for  the  other 


THEORY    OF   ASSOCIATIONS  331 

degrees  would  of  course  ]ye  identical  with  those  due  to  the 
adoption  of  an  alien  complex. 

So  far  a  disciple  of  Schurtz  might  assent,  turning  the 
historical  data  into  so  much  grist  for  his  mill.  Quite  so, 
he  would  say;  the  amplification  of  the  series  must  be  rela- 
tively recent,  for  originally  there  could  have  been  only  the 
three  fundamental  age-classes  of  boys,  bachelors,  and  eld- 
ers. That,  however,  he  would  contend,  is  not  due  to  bor- 
rowing nor  to  any  subsequent  internal  evolution  but  is  a 
primeval  grouping  as  the  result  of  an  immutable  social 
law.  We,  however,  shall  not  readily  admit  that  principles 
which  have  been  established  for  the  known  period  of  his- 
tory suddenly  sprang  into  being  and  were  inoperative  in 
the  period  immediately  preceding.  And  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  data  are  such  as  to  prove  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt 
that  the  scheme  of  graded  societies  was  borrowed  as  a 
scheme  from  one  source.  Comparing,  say,  the  Hidatsa  and 
the  Blackfoot  series,  we  find  the  identical  conception  of 
purchase  joined  with  the  characteristic  feature  that  wives 
are  ceremonially  surrendered  to  the  seller,  and  no  fewer 
than  four  of  the  complexes,  the  Fox,  Dog,  Raven,  and  Bull 
societies  occur  in  both.  Even  to  think  of  independent  evo- 
lution in  this  case  would  be  madness.  One  of  the  two  tribes 
certainly  borrowed  its  system  from  the  other  or  from  a 
common  source ;  and  when  comparison  is  extended  to  the 
three  other  peoples  with  graded  societies  the  observed  re- 
semblances deepen  the  conviction  that  there  were  not  five 
spontaneous  evolutions  of  a  graded  system  but  that  a  sin- 
gle basic  scheme  has  been  locally  modified  in  so  many  dis- 
tinct tribes.  Even  if  we  grant,  then,  that  the  degrees  or 
dances  originally  represented  the  tripartite  division,  this 
could  apply  only  to  the  one  people  who  transmitted  the 
scheme.  All  the  others  came  to  possess  that  feature  not 
through  the  action  of  an  inherent  law  of  progress  but  be- 
cause they  came  into  contact  with  a  people  who  did  produce 
that  phenomenon.     So  far  as  they  are  concerned,  there  is 


332  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

no  evidence  that  male  society  automatically  groups  itself 
into  three  or  for  that  matter  any  other  number  of  age- 
classes. 

In  truth,  the  case  against  Schurtz  is  even  stronger.  For 
he  has  no  right  to  assume  that  the  people  who  first  had 
graded  societies,  say,  the  Hidatsa,  originated  the  societies 
themselves  in  addition  to  the  notion  of  grading  them. 
While  only  five  Plains  Indian  tribes  share  the  age-societies, 
a  considerable  number  of  other  tribes  have  the  same  com- 
plexes without  any  age  connection.  It  is,  therefore,  pos- 
sible and  indeed  probable  that  even  among  the  Hidatsa  the 
grading  was  a  secondary  phenomenon :  they  copied  some 
ungraded  organizations  of  their  neighbors  and  somehow 
came  to  range  them  in  an  hierarchical  series.  The  import- 
ance of  this  development  is  manifest.  It  strikes  at  the  very 
root  of  Schurtz's  philosophy.  Not  a  classification  by  age 
but  some  other  socializing  instrumentality  underlies  the 
military  organizations  of  the  Plains,  the  age  factor  only 
appearing  at  a  relatively  late  period  and  in  a  specialized 
variant  of  these  societies. 

What  the  original  socializing  agencies  may  have  been, 
has  already  been  partly  indicated  in  the  account  of  the 
varieties  of  associational  types.  The  influence  of  visions, 
than  which  no  more  fundamental  cultural  element  occurs 
in  the  area,  makes  itself  felt  in  several  ways.  There  may 
be  a  grouping  of  persons  according  to  their  visions,  as 
among  the  Omaha ;  or  the  visionary  may  initiate  others  and 
with  them  organize  a  distinct  society,  as  in  the  Tobacco 
dance  of  the  Crow ;  or  he  may  drill  a  company  of  men  to 
perform  a  ceremony  he  has  dreamt,  the  temporary  union 
of  participants  becoming  fixed,  as  probably  happened  among 
the  Eastern  Dakota.  An  equally  important  trait  of  the 
culture  of  this  region  is  the  undertaking  of  a  war  expedi- 
tion, and  there  is  good  evidence  that  among  the  Dakota 
the  comrades  in  arms  became  pennanently  associated.  Sev- 
eral causes  were  thus  at  work  that  could  and  doubtless  did 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  333 

produce  associations  of  men  long  before  there  came  into 
being  that  extremely  localized  and  specialized  phenomenon 
of  grading  associations  by  age. 

The  argument  has  been  of  necessity  somewhat  complex, 
so  that  a  brief  recapitulation  will  not  come  amiss.  Con- 
fronted with  a  chronological  scheme  that  derived  clubs, 
secret  societies  and  all  other  associations  from  three  age- 
classes,  we  undertook  to  examine  the  hypothetical  sequence 
in  the  light  of  data  from  a  single  area.  A  rapid  survey  of 
Plains  Indian  associations  made  it  appear  that  age-classes 
formed  by  no  means  the  predominant  type  of  grouping  and 
that  in  certain  cases  the  age  grouping  is  demonstrably  a 
secondary  feature.  Narrowing  the  discussion  to  those  sys- 
tems of  societies  that  most  clearly  indicate  an  age-stratifi- 
cation, we  discovered  a  number  of  significant  facts.  The 
supposed  degrees  were  shuffled  about  by  the  natives  witli 
the  utmost  abandon,  so  that  the  same  society  which  repre- 
sented a  young  men's  club  in  one  tribe  was  composed  of 
mature  or  even  old  men  in  another.  The  subjective  atti- 
tude of  the  Indians  showed  that  they  were  essentially  not 
grading  themselves  by  age  but  buying  certain  prized  cere- 
monial prerogatives,  so  that  one  individual  could  simul- 
taneously claim  several  degrees, — a  sheer  impossibility  if 
they  represented  differences  in  age  or  conjugal  condition. 
There  remained  the  problem  of  the  historical  growth  of  the 
graded  series.  Preferring  to  pass  from  the  known  to  the 
unknown,  we  found  that  in  the  period  of  which  we  have 
definite  knowledge  the  great  factor  has  been  diffusion,  that 
the  complexity  of  the  observed  systems  is  due  to  piecemeal 
additions  through  borrowing.  Still  it  would  be  conceivable 
that  at  an  earlier  stage  a  simpler  tripartite  grouping  under- 
lay the  scheme  of  these  societies,  in  which  case  there  would 
be  harmony  with  the  supposedly  basic  law  of  social  evolu- 
tion expounded  by  Schurtz.  But  since  the  five  tribes  un- 
doubtedly derived  their  graded  series  from  one  source, 
that  law  could  have  found  expression  in  only  one  of  them; 


334  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

in  the  other  four  tribes  the  hypothetical  tripartite  scheme 
would  be  the  result  not  of  any  inherent  social  force  but  of 
borrowing,  hence  the  'law'  would  not  be  a  law  at  all.  And 
even  taking  the  people  who  first  graded  societies  by  age, 
it  would  be  rash  to  assume  that  they  were  the  first  to  origi- 
nate military  societies  because  these  are  far  more  com- 
monly found  in  ungraded  form.  Finally,  the  basic  phenom- 
ena of  Plains  Indian  existence  offer  a  number  of  means  by 
which  men  could  have  been  and  actually  were  imited  into 
associations.  Schurtz's  unilinear  scheme  resting  on  the 
theory  of  a  tripartite  age-division  is  thus  wholly  inap- 
plicable to  a  type  of  associations  that  ostensibly  gives  evi- 
dence of  an  age-grouping.  In  an  area  abounding  in  as- 
sociations the  age-classes  appear  as  a  local  and  late  type, 
not  corresponding,  moreover,  with  the  tripartite  division. 

Yet  when  we  have  smitten  Schurtz's  chronology  hip  and 
thigh,  the  fact  remains  that  age  has  played  its  part,  though 
not  as  he  imagined,  in  the  histor}.'  of  the  military  organiza- 
tions. Among  the  Crow,  Dakota  and  Kiowa,  all  of  whom 
had  coordinate  societies,  one  genuine  age-class  arose  in  the 
most  natural  manner  in  the  world,  by  boys  imitating  the 
organizations  of  their  elders.  This  seemingly  trivial  fact 
gives  us  a  clue  to  the  possible  inception  of  grading.  Let 
us  assume  that  among  the  originators  of  degrees,  say,  the 
Hidatsa,  this  juvenile  mimicry  was  in  vogue.  Suppose  fur- 
ther that  there  was  a  single  society  into  which  many  or  most 
of  the  adult  men  purchased  entrance,  joining  in  order  to 
enhance  their  prestige,  a  constant  motive  in  primitive  com- 
munities. All  that  was  then  required  was  for  the  boys  in 
their  eagerness  to  own  a  real  complex  of  dancing  and  other 
privileges  to  buy  membership  jointly,  the  collective  char- 
acter of  the  transaction  constituting  its  revolutionary  fea- 
ture since  thereby  the  informal  group  of  playmates  became 
as  definite  an  age-class  as  the  Masai  boys  undergoing  joint 
circumcision.  The  dispossessed  sellers  would  then  lack  a 
dance  but  their  former  bond  was  likely  to  keep  them  together 


li 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  335 

and  at  the  first  opportunity  they  would  dream,  that  is,  in- 
vent a  new  one  or  buy  it  from  a  foreign  tribe.  The  new 
dance  would  then  become  the  next  goal  of  the  boys'  ambi- 
tion and  accordingly  a  second  degree.  It  should  be  noted 
that  the  original  adults'  group  was  not  necessarily  a  definite 
age-class.  On  the  one  hand,  it  might  have  embraced  any 
man  from  20  to  80;  on  the  other,  it  need  not  have  included 
more  than,  say,  sixty  per  cent  of  the  adults.  But  the  mim- 
icking youngsters  did  constitute  an  approximate  age-class, 
and  when  they  had  once  in  a  body  bought  a  higher  society 
they  had  set  in  motion  the  machinery  required  to  found 
such  a  system  as  was  characteristic  of  the  Hidatsa  and  the 
four  other  tribes  with  grades.  A  new  generation  of  boys 
would  buy  the  lowest  degree  from  the  originators  of  the 
practice,  the  latter  would  advance  collectively,  gradually  the 
amorphous  group  of  original  adults  would  die  out,  and 
leave  behind  successive  groups  of  younger  men  approxi- 
mately graded  by  age.  The  fact  that  young  boys  flock  to- 
gether, itself  an  illustration  of  the  associative  power  of  age 
in  a  general  way,  might  thus  have  led  to  that  incidental 
affiliation  of  age-distinctions  with  societies  described  above. 
The  age  factor  thus  remains  a  reality,  though  it  is  neither 
the  only  nor  necessarily  the  predominant  feature  in  the 
history  of  associations,  nor  yet  the  earliest  one  in  the  Plains 
area.^ 

General  Conclusions 

From  the  actual  history  of  the  Plains  Indian  associations 
certain  general  conclusions  can  be  drawn.  For  one  thing, 
the  baneful  effect  of  catchwords  has  once  more  become 
manifest.  A  division  of  all  male  society  into  groups  of 
uninitiated  boys,  bachelors,  and  elders  is  one  thing;  a  di- 
vision into  age-classes  on  the  Hidatsa  pattern  represents 
something  utterly  different ;  the  division  of  the  Crow  Foxes 
into  young,  middle-aged  and  old  members  is  again  a  dis- 


336  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

parate  phenomenon  since  it  involves  no  tribal  partition  but 
merely  a  grouping  within  a  single  association  out  of  many. 
We  must,  accordingly,  be  on  our  guard  when  other  equally 
broad  and  equally  vague  terms  are  used  to  designate  phe- 
nomena in  disconnected  areas.  The  probability  is  that  the 
identity  of  nomenclature  simulates  a  likeness  that  does  not 
exist.  If,  for  example,  we  compare  the  secret  societies  of 
Melanesia  with  those  of  the  Pueblo  Indians,  there  is  no 
analogy  whatsoever  either  in  constitution,  function  or  any- 
thing else  but  the  exclusion  of  non-members.  Entrance 
into  the  secret  societies  of  the  Banks  Islands  is  by  pur- 
chase, in  the  Southwest  it  is  by  virtue  of  being  cured  by  a 
member  or  being  received  at  birth  by  a  member's  wife  or 
by  heredity,  never  by  payment.  The  Banks  Islanders  never 
admit  women ;  some  of  the  Pueblo  societies  do,  and  some 
of  them  are  even  constituted  wholly  by  women.  The  ac- 
tivities of  the  Melanesian  societies  center  in  the  production 
of  a  queer  noise  and  the  protection  of  members'  property, 
together  with  occasional  terrorizing  of  the  uninitiated  and 
wanton  destruction  of  their  l^elongings.  To  all  this  there 
is  no  parallel  in  the  curative  fraternities  of  the  Zufii  or  the 
rain-making  ceremonial  associations  of  the  Hopi.  There 
is  thus  neither  an  historical  nor  a  psychological  affinity  be- 
tween these  organizations. 

All  this  has  a  most  important  bearing  on  the  problem  of 
unilinear  evolution.  An  intensive  consideration  of  the 
Plains  Indian  societies  certainly  goes  far  to  show  that  as 
regards  phenomena  of  this  type  histor}^  does  not  tend  to 
repeat  itself  except  in  the  most  general  way  or  for  a  very 
limited  span  of  time.  It  might  be  said  that  in  all  sorts  of 
communities  the  gregarious  instinct  asserts  itself  in  one 
way  or  another;  and  I  have  myself  admitted  that  the  age 
factor  ever  and  anon  tends  to  effect  a  sub-grouping  if  not 
a  primary  grouping  of  individuals.  These,  however,  are 
sociological  rather  than  historical  generalizations :  they  ex- 
press no  formulation  of  any  fixed  sequence  of  events.     Now 


THEORY   OF   ASSOCIATIONS  337 

let  us  consider  the  number  of  principles  whose  confluence  is 
requisite  to  form  something  comparable  to  the  Hidatsa  age- 
societies.  There  must  be  the  notion  of  dances  associated 
with  insignia,  good-fellowship  of  the  participants,  military 
obligations,  and  the  purchasability  of  such  complexes ;  and 
the  last  trait  rests  on  the  native  theory  of  visionary  expe- 
riences. No  wonder  that  with  such  a  multiplicity  of  essen- 
tial factors,  this  type  of  association  has  not  been  duplicated. 
The  Masai  are  as  warlike  as  the  Hidatsa  but  this  general 
similarity  cannot  produce  specific  resemblances  in  the  ab- 
sence of  identical  cultural  traditions.  With  a  quite  differ- 
ent conception  of  ceremonialism,  with  no  such  theory  of 
individual  visions  as  wasi  held  by  the  Hidatsa,  the  Masai 
could  not  possibly  evolve  a  corresponding  system.  If  this  is 
so,  it  follows  that  the  search  for  all-embracing  laws  of  evo- 
lution on  the  model  of  Morgan's  or  Schurtz's  schemes  is  a 
wild-goose  chase  and  that  only  an  intensive  ethnographic 
study  in  each  cultural  province  can  establish  the  actual  se- 
quence of  stages. 

References 

iSchurtz:  83-109,  125-128,  202-213,  318-333,  347-3^7- 
2  Von  den  Steinen  :  268.  Radin,  191 1:  198-207.  Alooney  : 
415.  Goddard,  1903:  15,50,67.  Dixon,  1905 :  269,  272  ;  id., 
1907:  420,471.  Barrett:  397.  Powers:  141,158,305.  Roth, 
1903:  31.  Nelson:  285,  347.  Hawkes,  1913.  Annual 
Archaeological  Report :  213.  Alldridge:  220.  Kingsley :  376. 
Spencer  and  Gillen,  1904:  498-501.  Lehner :  404  seq.  Par- 
kinson: 636,  640,  658.  Hollis,  1909:  40,  56.  Talbot:  284. 
Frobenius:  170.  Von  den  Steinen :  384.  Lang:  29-44. 
^  Lowie,  1916. 


CHAPTER  XII 

RANK 

AS  I  have  already  pointed  out,  Morgan's  conception  of 
society  was  an  atomistic  one.  Perhaps  it  was  the 
traditional  American  bias  in  favor  of  democratic  institu- 
tions that  caused  him  to  blink  at  evidences  of  social  dis- 
crimination in  the  ruder  civilizations.  He  paid  little  atten- 
tion to  the  differences  between  sibs  of  the  same  people  or 
to  those  between  different  individuals  of  the  same  com- 
munity; and  privileged  orders  he  assigned  to  a  far  later 
epoch  of  evolution.  Yet,  even  restricting  his  survey  to 
North  America,  he  might  have  detected  schemes  of  social 
organization  in  which  the  differentiation  of  upper  and  lower 
classes  was  fundamental;  and  what  is  still  more  important, 
he  might  have  found  that  the  absence  of  hereditary  castes 
by  no  means  excludes  vital  distinctions  on  the  basis  of 
personal  desert.  Primitive  man  is  no  imbecile ;  he  is  quick 
to  perceive  and  to  appraise  those  individual  differences 
which  as  an  inevitable  biological  phenomenon  mark  every 
group,  even  the  lowest,  as  Dr.  Marett  has  rightly  insisted. 
Primitive  man  knows  that  X,  though  a  dullard  at  spinning 
a  yarn,  is  a  crack  shot  with  the  bow  and  arrow ;  that  Y, 
for  all  his  eloquence  in  the  council,  has  proved  a  poltroon 
in  sight  of  the  enemy ;  that  Z  is  an  amiable  all-round  medi- 
ocrity. Imperceptibly  he  grades  them,  imperceptibly  their 
influence  on  his  own  deeds  and  thoughts  depends  on  his 
evaluation.  That  in  turn  is  not  wholly  nor  largely  an  in- 
dividual affair  but  a  social  matter,  affected  by  the  tribal 
standards.     The  man  who  in  one  milieu  is  esteemed  as  a 

338 


I 


RANK  339 

hero  will  be  considered  no  better  than  a  rufifianly  bnite  in 
another ;  mechanical  skill  may  be  rated  highly  by  one  people 
and  accord  no  distinction  whatsoever  elsewhere.  In  our 
own  civilization  the  stigma  of  effeminacy  still  clings  to  the 
musician,  and  the  professional  scholar  has  a  far  less  en- 
viable position  than  he  occupies  in  continental  Europe.  It 
is  precisely  part  of  ethnology's  task  to  show  how  societies 
differ  in  their  canons  of  personal  appreciation.  Aboriginal 
North  America  is  an  unusually  favorable  field  for  demon- 
strating the  power  of  individual  differences  because  with  a 
few  exceptions  to  be  noted  later  the  greater  part  of  this 
continent  was  occupied  by  democratically-minded  tribes. 
We    may    profitably    begin    by    considering    some    Plains 


groups/ 


Bravery 

With  the  Plains  Indians  the  quest  of  military  renown 
was  as  hypertrophied  as  ever  has  been  the  lust  for  gold 
in  our  most  money-mad  centers  of  high  finance.  It  was  in 
order  that  he  might  gain  a  vision  assuring  distinction  in  bat- 
tle that  a  young  brave  fasted  and  dragged  buffalo  skulls 
fastened  to  his  punctured  shoulder  muscles ;  and  to  gain 
the  coveted  glory  he  would  throw  caution  to  the  wind,  risk- 
ing life  and  limb  in  senseless  deeds  of  derring-do.  These, 
moreover,  had  to  conform  to  a  conventional  pattern  in 
order  to  count  as  heroic,  and  they  differed  in  some  measure 
from  tribe  to  tribe.  In  the  normal  course  of  Crow  events 
four  exploits  were  considered  honorable  and  jointly  con- 
ferred on  their  achiever  the  title  of  chief,  which  was  usually 
quite  devoid  of  political  significance.  In  order  to  acquire 
such  distinction  it  was  necessary  for  a  warrior  to  cut  loose 
and  steal  a  horse  picketed  within  the  hostile  camp ;  to  take 
an  enemy's  bow  or  gun  in  a  hand-to-hand  encounter;  to 
strike  a  'coup,'  i.e.,  touch  an  enemy  with  a  weapon  or  even 
the  bare  hand ;  and  to  lead  a  victorious  war  expedition. 


340  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Naturally  only  a  limited  number  of  men  ever  scored  on 
each  of  these  counts ;  but  even  though  he  might  not  rank 
as  a  chief,  a  brave  who  had  accomplished  one  or  more  of 
these  deeds  of  valor  acquired  to  that  extent  favorable  no- 
tice in  the  tribe,  indeed,  his  standing  was  altogether  pro- 
portionate to  his  war  record.  At  all  tribal  gatherings  he 
was  privileged  to  recite  a  list  of  his  experiences ;  he  might 
have  them  painted  on  his  robes  or  on  the  windbreak  of 
his  lodge ;  parents  would  come  to  him,  requesting  that  he 
name  their  children;  ambitious  youths  paid  him  for  part  of 
his  war  medicine;  on  every  public  occasion  he  would  be 
selected  for  some  post  of  honor,  say,  to  act  as  herald;  his 
father's  sib-mates  would  chant  his  praises  through  the 
camp;  and  even  in  ceremonial  life  precedence  would  be 
yielded  to  the  successful  warrior  with  regard  to  honorific 
services. 

Sometimes  this  point  of  view  found  extravagant  expres- 
sion in  current  songs  and  adages.  "It  is  proper  to  die 
young"  was  the  dulcc  ct  decorum  of  Crow  and  Hidatsa 
sages.  "Eternal  are  the  heavens  and  the  earth;  old  people 
are  bad;  be  not  afraid"  is  the  burden  of  a  Crow  song. 
Hence  an  elder  brother  might  force  a  younger  to  assume  the 
unusual  obligations  of  bravery  associated  with  special  office 
in  a  military  society,  not  from  malice  but  in  order  that  the 
youth  might  acquire  glory.  On  the  basis  of  this  attitude  we 
find  warriors  not  only  pledged  to  intrepidity  but  deliber- 
ately courting  death  in  foolhardy  ventures,  e.g.,  by  rush- 
ing single-handed  against  a  hostile  troop. 

Naturally  a  coward  was  the  object  of  supreme  contempt, 
jeered  at  by  his  joking-relatives  and  compared  with  a  men- 
struating woman.  The  one-sided  accentuation  of  martial 
valor  naturally  led  to  inadequate  recognition  of  men  whose 
parts  in  communities  with  different  standards  would  have 
assured  them  an  enviable  prestige.  Thus,  I  found  that  one 
of  my  ablest  Crow  informants,  a  man  remarkably  well- 
posted  in  tribal  lore,  was  universally  pooh-poohed  as  a  no- 


RANK  341 

body.  It  developed  that  he  had  never  won  distinction  on 
the  battlefield  and  had  made  matters  worse  by  reciting  meri- 
torious deeds  to  which  he  had  no  claim.  In  other  words,  a 
highly  endowed  individual  may  receive  no  recognition  in 
his  social  setting  simply  because  the  rigidity  of  the  native 
canons  renders  any  merit  in  the  direction  of  his  capacities 
irrelevant. 

Certain  other  qualities  were  prized  by  the  Crow  not  as 
substitutes  for  valor  but  as  additional  embellishments  of 
the  warrior's  character.  Foremost  among  these  was  liber- 
ality and  there  was  corresponding  contempt  for  the  miser. 
The  estimation  of  w^omen  was  just  as  definitely  on  the  basis 
of  individual  merit,  though  the  set  of  values  inevitably  dif- 
fered. Despite  the  general  looseness  of  morals,  a  chaste 
woman  was  held  in  high  esteem  and  for  certain  ceremonial 
offices  immaculate  virtue  was  a  prerequisite.  Skill  in  fem- 
inine crafts  and  kindliness  also  were  conducive  to  a 
woman's  prestige.  Thus,  it  appears  that  in  a  relatively 
simple  culture  and  in  a  markedly  democratic  community  in- 
dividual differences  nevertheless  produced  enormous  differ- 
ences in  social  rating. 

From  the  nature  of  the  case  warlike  peoples  might  be 
expected  to  develop  somewhat  similar  schemes  of  an  aris- 
tocracy based  on  individual  merit.  To  be  sure,  the  Maori 
of  New  Zealand  furnish  the  example  of  a  martial  people 
among  whom  the  caste  spirit  was  too  deep-rooted  to  be 
minced  with  any  Napoleonic  principle  of  a  general's  baton 
in  the  recruit's  knapsack.  But  more  frequently  the  soldier's 
life  is  in  primitive  conditions  coupled  with  notions  follow- 
ing the  Crow  pattern.  In  the  bachelors'  kraal  of  the  Masai 
there  is  virtual  equality  of  status,  but  those  who  have  dis- 
tinguished themselves  by  munificence  and  valor,  respec- 
tively, take  precedence  as  the  Generous  People  and  the 
Bulls,  and  are  permitted  to  assume  special  ornaments. 
Cowards  are  mocked  in  the  presence  of  the  girls,  and  a  man 
who  absents  himself  from  a  raid  solemnly  agreed  upon  may 


342  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

be  slain  with  impunity.  And  as  the  Plains  Indian  brave 
might  pledge  himself  to  extravagantly  reckless  conduct,  so 
the  Masai  will  implant  a  pompon  on  the  head  of  his  spear, 
vowing  never  to  remove  it  till  he  has  run  the  point  through 
a  foeman's  body.  A  similar  frame  of  mind  is  evinced  by 
the  Bagobo  of  far-away  Mindanao,  whose  chief  aim  in  life 
is  to  wear  the  distinctive  attire  that  rewards  the  man  who 
has  at  least  twice  slain  a  human  being.  After  the  second 
killing  he  is  permitted  to  don  a  chocolate-colored  headband, 
the  fourth  entitles  him  to  wear  blood-red  trousers,  and  when 
he  has  scored  six  he  may  use  a  complete  suit  of  that  color 
and  a  red  bag  to  boot.  Every  additional  life  taken,  while 
no  longer  resulting  in  a  change  of  costume,  brings  addi- 
tional credit.  Those  who  have  never  killed  a  person  are 
nobodies,  while  the  acknowledged  braves  fill  positions  of 
importance  and  are  deemed  under  the  special  tutelage  of 
two  powerful  spirits,  between  whom  and  the  common  herd 
they  are  the  intermediaries.  Not  only  the  status  but  even 
the  garments  of  the  brave  are  uninheritable,  and  the  latter 
should  be  buried  with  the  owner." 

Shamanism  ;  Wealth 

Radically  different  notions  as  to  eminence  occur  in  other 
parts  of  the  world.  The  Northern  Maidu  may  serve  as  an 
example.  Here  there  was  an  elective  chieftaincy  based  on 
wealth  and  generosity,  but  in  reality  the  shaman,  especially 
if  leader  of  the  secret  society,  completely  overshadowed  the 
headman.  It  was  indeed  through  the  shaman,  who  revealed 
the  will  of  the  spirits,  that  the  chief  was  chosen ;  and  a 
similar  communication  led  to  his  degradation.  The  shaman 
himself  did  not  inherit  his  office  but  became  a  professional 
by  mysterious  visitations  and  by  passing  a  satisfactory  ex- 
amination imposed  l)y  the  older  practitioners.  In  other 
words,  an  aptitude  for  religious  experiences  was  the  step- 
ping-stone to  social  prominence.     To  all  intents  and  pur- 


RANK  343 

poses,  the  shamanistic  leader  of  the  secret  organization  was 
the  most  eminent  person  in  the  community.  He  regulated 
the  ceremonial  life  of  his  people,  adjusted  disputes,  insured 
a  good  corn  crop,  warded  off  disease  and  by  his  magical 
powers  inflicted  condign  punishment  on  the  enemy ;  indeed, 
he  himself  often  led  war  parties  in  person.  Over  and  above 
all  these  things,  he  was  the  authority  on  tribal  mythology 
and  lore,  and  it  was  his  duty  to  instruct  the  people  on  these 
lofty  topics. 

In  northern  California  a  motive  already  discernible  in 
minor  degree  among  the  Maidu  gains  the  ascendancy :  dis- 
tinction is  founded  primarily  on  wealth.  The  Hupa  head- 
man was  the  man  of  greatest  affluence ;  the  villagers  looked 
to  him  for  the  necessaries  of  life  in  time  of  scarcity  or  for 
assistance  wath  moiiey  in  case  of  disputes.  His  power  de- 
scended to  his  son  provided  his  property  also  descended; 
but  if  some  unusually  able  or  industrious  rival  acquired 
greater  wealth,  he  won  with  it  the  dignity  of  office.  Ex- 
actly the  same  conception  prevailed  in  Shasta  society. 

The  place  of  wealth  in  the  polity  of  primitive  tribes  gen- 
erally is  a  matter  of  great  comparative  interest.  In  the 
pastoral  stage  a  new  form  of  property  is  introduced  that 
might  result  in  far-reaching  differences  of  status  were  it 
not  for  the  leveling  force  of  natural  conditions,  which  may 
debase  the  nabob  of  yesterday  to  the  position  of  a  pauper. 
Hence  the  basic  frame  of  mind  may  still  be  democratic. 
The  poor  Altaian  asserts  all  the  pride  of  shabby  gentility  in 
his  relations  with  wealthier  tribesmen ;  he  enters  the  house- 
hold of  a  rich  cattle-breeder  as  a  member  of  the  family, 
brooking  no  suggestion  of  menial  servitude,  and  would 
rather  starve  than  obey  a  peremptory  command.  With  the 
Reindeer  Chukchi  the  assistant's  status  is  less  favorable, 
for  the  master  may  abuse  and  even  beat  his  helper.  Never- 
theless, this  privilege  is  limited  both  by  the  native  ideal, 
which  requires  generous  treatment,  and  also  by  the  relative 
prowess  of  the  men  concerned,  for  a  powerful  assistant  may 


344  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

turn  the  tables  on  an  abusive  master.  A  peculiar  conception 
of  wealth  occurs  in  Melanesia.  As  explained  in  the  de- 
scription of  the  club  of  the  Banks  Islanders,  advancement 
in  the  organization  and  consequent  promotion  in  the  social 
scale  was  dependent  on  wealth,  yet  it  was  not  the  hoarding 
of  money  or  property  that  conferred  distinction  but  its 
lavish  disposal.  Precisely  the  same  notion  is  characteristic 
of  the  Indians  of  British  Columbia,  though  there  the  mat- 
ter is  complicated  by  the  coexistence  of  hereditary  castes 
to  be  noticed  presently.  "Possession  of  wealth,"  writes 
Boas,  who  has  graphically  pictured  the  Kwakiutl  point  of 
view,  "is  considered  honorable,  and  it  is  the  endeavor  of 
each  Indian  to  acquire  a  fortune.  But  it  is  not  as  much  the 
possession  of  wealth  as  the  ability  to  give  great  festivals 
which  make  wealth  a  desirable  object  to  the  Indian."  The 
more  property  a  man  distributes  at  these  festivals  or  pot- 
latches,  as  they  are  called,  the  higher  he  rises  in  social  esti- 
mation. Boys,  chiefs  and  whole  communities  are  pitted 
against  each  other  in  a  competition  of  extravagance.  The 
challenger  gives  his  opponent  a  large  number  of  blankets, 
which  cannot  be  refused  and  which  must  be  returned  in  the 
future  with  lOO  per  cent  interest  unless  the  recipient  is 
willing  to  undergo  the  humiliation  of  insolvency.  Some- 
times, to  show  his  contempt  for  pelf,  a  chief  will  wan- 
tonly destroy  valuable  property  and  in  former  times  slaves 
were  killed  from  sheer  bravado.  The  stress  placed  on  this 
feature  has  even  in  exceptional  cases  affected  the  otherwise 
rigid  lines  of  caste.  Sapir  notes  "cases  in  which  men  of 
lower  rank  have  by  dint  of  reckless  potlatching  gained  the 
ascendancy  over  their  betters,  gradually  displacing  them  in 
one  or  more  of  the  privileges  belonging  to  their  rank. 
Among  the  West  Coast  Indians,  as  in  Europe,  there  is,  then, 
opportunity  for  the  unsettling  activities  of  the  parvenu." 

Thus  martial  valor,  a  bent  for  mystical  experiences,  and 
in  one  way  or  another  wealth,  are  all  motives  in  primitive 
communities  by  which  men  otherwise  equal  come  to  be  dif- 


RANK  345 

ferentiated  in  position.  To  this  we  may  add  as  a  common 
feature  in  the  lower  levels  dexterity  as  a  provider  of  food. 
Among  the  Maritime  Chukchi  the  family  that  has  lived  in 
a  village  for  the  longest  period  and  gained  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  economic  conditions  takes  precedence ; 
and  the  organizer  of  a  sealing  expedition  has  a  position  of 
some  distinction.  The  Yukaghir  recognize  a  specific  post 
of  chief  hunter;  it  is  an  onerous  one  since  he  has  to  procure 
sustenance  for  the  entire  community  and  there  is  little  if 
any  emolument  save  the  honor  attached  to  the  office.  Less 
formally  many  American  Indians,  such  as  the  Chipewyan 
and  the  Plateau  Shoshoneans,  attested  their  respect  for  the 
skilful  hunter.^ 

Caste 

The  factors  hitherto  examined  are  based  on  individual 
differences  independent  of  rank  due  to  pedigree.  However, 
the  cases  are  fairly  numerous  in  which  distinction,  however 
subsequently  affected  by  personal  competence,  is  primarily  a 
matter  of  inheritance.  Where  a  full-fledged  caste  system 
exists  it  generally  moulds  political  conditions,  but  at  pres- 
ent our  concern  is  solely  with  the  matter  of  social  rank. 

In  Polynesia  the  family  pride  of  the  aboriginal  blue- 
bloods  rivals  the  superciliousness  of  Gilbert  and  Sullivan's 
Pooh-Bah.  This  sentiment  derives  its  sustenance  from  the 
belief  in  the  divine  descent  of  the  nobility.  The  chiefs  are 
descendants,  representatives  and  in  a  sense  incarnations  of 
the  gods,  as  Mr.  Hocart  has  explained.  Among  the  typical 
Maori  social  precedence  depended  on  directness  of  descent 
through  primogeniture  from  the  highest  gods.  Every  man 
of  distinction  was  obliged  for  his  own  sake  to  memorize  his 
pedigree,  partly  historical  and  partly  legendary,  so  that  he 
might  establish  his  status  when  challenged.  Thus,  a  fam- 
ous Maori  soldier  of  recent  times  traced  his  lineage  from 
Heaven  and  Earth  through  sixty-five  intervening  genera- 


346  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

tions.  The  intricacies  of  native  heraldry  were  labyrinthine, 
for  both  parental  lines  counted  and  the  balance  between  con- 
tending rivals  would  have  to  be  struck  with  not  a  little 
nicety.  A  chief's  children  would  naturally  differ  in  status 
according  to  their  respective  mothers'  families,  A  child 
born  of  a  noble  mother  would  outrank  its  parents  because 
it  united  the  honors  of  both  lines ;  on  the  other  hand,  the 
chief's  first-born  by  a  slave  wife  might  exercise  many  privi- 
leges but  was  never  regarded  as  a  full-fledged  chief,  nor 
could  personal  merit  completely  compensate  for  a  flaw  in 
the  genealogy.  Those  without  a  single  blot  on  the  family 
escutcheon  were  naturally  few  and  their  preeminence  might 
become  uncomfortable  when  no  maiden  of  adequate  quality 
could  be  found  for  a  suitable  mate.  Sometimes,  too,  the 
legitimate  priest-chief  by  primogeniture  was  reckoned  too 
exalted  a  person  actually  to  execute  the  duties  of  office, 
which  were  accordingly  delegated  to  his  next  younger 
brother.  One  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  prospective  lord- 
pontiff  was  admission  to  the  sacred  college,  where  he 
learned  the  legendary  history  of  his  people  and  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  dread  incantations.  From  this  institution  of 
learning  women  were  barred,  but  if  a  girl  appeared  as  the 
first-born  in  the  sacred  line,  she  possessed  privileges  of  a 
quite  unusual  character;  she  alone  of  all  women  might  taste 
of  human  flesh  and  eat  sacred  offerings;  she  was  permitted 
to  learn  something  of  the  ancient  lore;  and  no  person  was 
allowed  to  eat  in  her  company.  Some  of  the  other  char- 
acteristics of  lofty  nobility  will  be  treated  under  the  head 
of  Government.  Next  in  rank  after  the  sacerdotal  chiefs 
came  the  chiefs  of  lesser  tribal  divisions  and  their  kin  in 
the  order  of  relationship.  Then  came  the  professional 
classes,  to  wit,  the  wizards  and  skilled  artisans,  while  the 
bulk  of  the  population  was  made  up  of  gentlemen  remotely 
affiliated  with  a  chief's  house  and  possessing  little  property. 
Last  of  all  came  the  slaves  recruited  mainly  from  cap- 
tives in  war.     Ordinarily  their  lot  was  not  one  of  material 


RANK  347 

degradation,  and  owing  to  the  superstitious  dread  of  cer- 
tain indispensable  tasks  as  defiling  a  person  of  quality  the 
slave's  estate  really  formed  one  of  the  pillars  of  the  Maori 
state.  Menial  labors,  such  as  cooking  or  burden-bearing, 
might  contaminate  a  warrior  but  not  the  slave  whose  spirit- 
ual and  temporal  status  was  negligible.  Sometimes  a  bond 
of  friendship  developed  between  the  slave  and  his  master, 
and  abuse  was  rarely  to  be  feared  since  it  was  reckoned  in- 
consistent with  the  code  of  the  upper  classes.  It  sometimes 
happened  that  a  slave  was  permitted  to  work  for  some  other 
person  and  to  keep  the  payment  received.  In  short,  his  po- 
sition was  tolerable  and  attempt  was  never  made  to  escape 
because  his  own  people  W'Ould  have  disow^ned  him  as  a  per- 
son w^hose  capture  w'as  proof  of  divine  disfavor.  However, 
there  was  the  ever  present  danger  of  execution  when  a  cere- 
monial sacrifice  was  needed,  say,  at  the  erection  of  a  build- 
ing, or  even  at  a  mere  caprice  of  the  owner's.  The  poorer 
men  of  the  tribe  often  married  slave  women  and  their  pro- 
geny soon  became  merged  in  the  ranks  of  freemen  but  their 
low  origin  was  always  likely  to  make  them  the  target  of 
disdainful  comment.  Sometimes,  though  rarely,  a  man 
with  a  strain  of  slave  blood  might  gain  eminence  by  his 
valor,  yet  he  was  always  viewed  as  an  upstart  incapable  of 
vying  with  the  aristocracy.  It  mattered  not  that  prior  to 
captivity  the  enslaved  ancestor  might  have  been  the  peer  of 
the  noblest,  the  mere  fact  of  capture  obliterated  all  trace  of 
his  blue  blood  and  formed  an  ineffaceable  stain  on  the 
escutcheon  of  his  lineage. 

The  social  fabric  of  the  Samoans  bears  a  generic  resemb- 
lance to  that  of  the  New  Zealanders,  but  naturally  with 
some  local  variations.  Stair  distinguishes  five  classes  of 
freemen — the  chiefs,  priests,  landed  gentry,  large  landown- 
ers, and  commoners.  However,  the  gradations  of  rank 
were  far  more  numerous  than  this  list  would  imply.  Chiefs 
were  by  no  means  of  uniform  status  and  the  precise  degree 
of  deference  to  be  paid  to  each  of  them  in  terms  of  address 


348  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

or  otherwise  was  adjusted  with  much  punctiHo,  Then  there 
were  the  attendants  of  the  great  chiefs,  who,  while  in  a 
sense  members  of  one  of  the  five  ranks  mentioned,  derived 
special  kudos  from  exercising  the  functions  of  barber,  cup- 
bearer, trumpeter  or  buffoon.  Skilled  artisans,  such  as 
canoe-builders,  architects  and  tattooers,  corresponded  to  our 
professional  class.  By  their  control  of  essential  industries 
and  class-conscious  organization  they  were  able  to  impose 
their  will  on  the  community  at  large,  as  Stair  has  vividly 
described.  When  an  influential  man  desired  to  have  a  canoe 
built,  he  first  amassed  as  much  property  as  possible  with  the 
aid  of  his  neighbors  and  repaired  to*  the  workmen,  formally 
requesting  the  chief  boat-wright's  services  in  a  compli- 
mentary speech  and  offering  a  valuable  mat  or  axe  as  an 
inducement.  Consent  might  not  always  be  readily  granted 
since  the  builders  were  greatly  in  demand  and  possibly  were 
too  busy  to  accept  new  orders,  but  if  disposed  to  undertake 
the  job  the  master  carpenter  replied  in  a  set  speech,  re- 
ceived the  initial  payment  and  made  arrangements  for  the 
beginning  of  his  labors.  On  the  day  appointed  the  canoe- 
builder  and  all  his  assistants  with  the  families  of  each  and 
every  man  engaged  in  the  work  appeared,  it  being  under- 
stood as  a  matter  of  course  that  the  customer  must  provide 
for  their  maintenance,  which  meant  entertainment  for  pos- 
sibly three  months  and  possibly  the  impoverishment  of  the 
host.  However,  every  effort  was  made  to  keep  the  numer- 
ous visitors  in  the  best  of  humor,  and  some  important  rep- 
resentative of  the  household  daily  attended  to  the  wants  of 
the  laborers,  who  were  sheltered  in  a  special  shed  protected 
from  all  interference  by  passers-by.  No  definite  fee  was 
agreed  upon,  but  it  was  customary  for  five  ceremonious  pay- 
ments to  be  made  at  proper  intervals,  and  if  the  first  two 
or  three  seemed  niggardly,  the  workmen  coolly  struck  until 
their  employer  apologized  or  yielded  compensation.  This 
was,  indeed,  the  only  way  out  of  the  dilemma,  for  no  other 
party  of  builders  -o'ould  continue  the  work  lest  they  be  ex- 


RANK  349 

communicated  by  the  remainder  of  their  guild  and  deprived 
of  their  tools  and  their  livelihood  during  the  pleasure  of 
this  domineering  trade  union.  Corresponding  scenes  oc- 
curred during  the  construction  of  a  house  since  the  archi- 
tects formed  an  equally  powerful  organization.  These  two 
guilds  might  of  course  be  considered  under  the  caption  of 
associations  but  it  seemed  preferable  to  view  them  in  con- 
nection with  the  strata  of  the  society  of  which  they 
form  part  and  in  which  they  occupied  a  fairly  definite 
place. 

One  rather  important  difference  divides  Samoan  from 
Maori  usage,  the  absence  of  primogeniture  in  the  case  of  the 
loftier  titles.  These  neither  descended  automatically  to  the 
eldest  son  of  the  chief  nor  was  it  in  his  power  to  appoint  a 
successor.  It  was  indeed  his  privilege  to  make  a  nomina- 
tion, but  this  would  have  to  be  ratified  by  the  influential 
men  of  the  locality  with  which  the  title  was  associated  and 
these  leaders  of  public  opinion  were  able  to  set  his  wishes 
at  naught.  There  was  not  so  much  ceremony  in  the  case 
of  the  title  held  by  a  landed  gentleman,  which  could  be  be- 
queathed by  the  dying  owner,  but  it  was  by  no  means  neces- 
sarily allotted  to  the  eldest-born  son,  another  of  better  ap- 
pearance or  superior  qualities,  nay,  even  an  adoptive  favor- 
ite being  frequently  substituted. 

This  sketchy  description  of  Polynesian  conditions  suf- 
fices to  indicate  the  importance  attached  to  hereditary  titles 
and  other  class  distinctions,  and  it  merely  remains  to  add 
that  patrician  and  plebeian  were  assigned  to  separate  after- 
worlds  in  order  to  afford  some  comprehension  of  what  part 
these  differences  of  caste  assumed  in  the  aboriginal  con- 
sciousness. 

Africa,  like  Polynesia,  is  a  region  of  marked  social  dis- 
tinctions, but  these  bear  a  totally  different  character.  There 
are  often  potentates  treated  in  the  most  reverential  and  in- 
deed abject  manner  by  their  subjects  and  surrounded  by  a 
hpst  of  hierarchically  graded  functionaries  that  would  hay^ 


350  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

done  honor  to  a  mediaeval  European  court.  But  the  digni- 
taries derive  their  station  not  from  their  lofty  ancestry,  they 
are  not  blue-bloods  with  endless  pedigrees  connecting  them 
with  some  traditional  figure,  but  political  officials  and  as 
such  usually  the  creatures  of  the  king.  The  sovereign  and 
his  kin  stand  apart;  the  rest  of  the  population  are  on  a 
plane  of  equality.  The  example  of  Uganda  is  typical.  The 
king  traced  his  lineage  from  a  legendary  hero;  all  other 
officials  of  the  state  owed  their  distinction  to  competent  and 
faithful  conduct  in  the  royal  service,  and  every  position  in 
the  realm  save  royalty  was  open  to  any  tribesman.  A  pa- 
trician caste  with  its  members  bandying  genealogies  is  an 
utterly  un-African  conception.  A  remarkable  feature  that 
may  be  noted  in  this  place  is  the  frequent  preeminence  of 
the  queen  dowager,  who  may  reign  in  a  court  of  her  own. 
Among  the  Bakuba,  though  the  king  is  an  incarnation  of 
the  supreme  deity,  he  yields  precedence  to  his  mother  in 
conversation,  it  being  her  prerogative  to  address  him  first, 
which  constitutes  the  badge  of  superiority  according  to 
native  etiquette. 

The  slaves  of  course  occupy  the  status  of  inferiors,  but 
here  some  discrimination  must  be  exercised.  There  were 
indeed  captives  enslaved  in  war  who  could  be  sold  like  cattle 
and  executed  at  their  master's  will.  But  there  was  another 
class  of  native  slaves  pawned  for  debt  and  these  enjoyed 
far  milder  treatment,  suffering  no  particular  loss  of  prestige 
since  their  servitude  was  often  undergone  to  rescue  an  im- 
poverished kinsman.  In  Uganda  a  slave  girl  who  bore  chil- 
dren to  a  freeman  became  free  together  with  her  progeny, 
and  sometimes,  though  not  generally,  her  sons  were  per- 
mitted to  inherit  property. 

The  preceding  remarks  apply  to  NegrO'  territories. 
Where  a  mixture  of  stocks  occurs,  conditions  are  compli- 
cated. For  example,  the  cattle-breeding  Wahuma  in  East 
Africa  occupy  a  station  varying  locally.  In  Ruanda  they 
constitute  the  governing  caste  looking  down  upon  the  horti- 


RANK  351 

cultural  Bantu,  while  elsewhere  they  are  simply  professional 
herdsmen  in  a  land  of  tillers. 

A  curious  phenomenon  occurs  among  the  Masai  and  their 
neighbors.  Though  generally  democratic,  these  tribes  seg- 
regate as  unclean  pariahs  the  guilds  or  sibs  of  blacksmiths 
upon  whom  they  are  dependent  for  their  weapons  and  whom 
one  would  a  priori  imagine  to  rank  high  in  a  warlike  com- 
munity. Since  there  is  no  suggestion  of  any  racial  differ- 
ence, the  reason  for  this  attitude  remains  enigmatical. 

North  America,  as  already  noted,  was  largely  the  scene 
of  both  social  and  political  democracies.  This  fact  is  thrown 
into  relief  when  we  turn  from  the  narratives  of  early  ex- 
plorers of  our  continent  to  the  corresponding  accounts  of 
African  or  Oceanian  travelers.  It  is  not  altogether  unin- 
telligible that  Morgan  should  have  hailed  "liberty,  equality, 
and  fraternity"  as  the  "cardinal  principles"  of  the  Ameri- 
can sib  organization  and,  accordingly  from  his  point  of 
view,  of  Indian  society  as  a  whole ;  and  that  he  should 
thence  have  derived  "that  sense  of  independence  and  per- 
sonal dignity  universally  an  attribute  of  Indian  character." 
But  very  few  ethnographical  propositions  can  be  laid  down 
without  qualification,  and  to  the  generalization  cited  there 
are  two  remarkable  exceptions — the  Natchez  of  the  lower 
Mississippi  and  the  natives  of  the  coast  of  British 
Columbia. 

The  Natchez  evidently  had  a  most  interesting  caste  sys- 
tem, but  unfortunately  known  to  us  only  from  the  records 
of  eighteenth  century  observers,  which,  however,  have  been 
carefully  brought  together  by  Dr.  S wanton.  The  common 
herd  were  designated  by  the  unflattering  term  of  Stinkards 
and  were  sharply  set  oflf  from  the  nobility.  This  was  sub- 
divided into  the  three  ranks  of  Honored  People,  Nobles  and 
Suns,  the  ruler  standing  at  the  head  of  the  scale  as  Great 
Sun.  Status  descended  primarily  through  the  mother.  The 
position  of  a  Sun  man  (and  of  the  nobility  generally)  w^as 
OOt  wliollv  without  effect  on  that  of  his  descendants  but  it 


352  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

suffered  progressive  debasement  in  successive  generations. 
His  children  were  only  Nobles,  his  grandsons  Honored  Peo- 
ple, and  his  great-grandsons  sank  to  the  rank  of  commoners. 
This  system  was  in  some  measure  alloyed  with  democratic 
notions  inasmuch  as  a  Stinkard  might  advance  himself  by 
bravery  to  the  lowest  rank  of  nobility,  while  an  Honored 
man  could  in  corresponding  fashion  gain  the  next  higher 
rung. 

What  was  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  among  the  corre- 
lated Natchez  customs  was  the  rule  underlying  marriage 
arrangements.  While  the  presence  of  rigid  class  distinc- 
tions almost  everywhere  else  involves  endogamous  laws,  the 
Natchez  not  only  permitted  but  prescribed  the  marriage  of 
Suns  with  commoners,  the  regulation  affecting  both  sexes. 
When  a  Sun  woman  espoused  a  Stinkard,  the  customary 
patriarchal  arrangements  of  the  tribe  were  suspended,  the 
husband  occupying  the  status  of  a  domestic  not  privileged 
to  eat  in  his  wife's  company  and  being  liable  to  execution 
for  infidelity.  The  working  of  the  scheme  has  been  thus 
summarized  by  Swanton :  The  Suns  comprised  children  of 
Sun  mothers  and  Stinkard  fathers ;  the  Nobles  were  chil- 
dren of  Noble  mothers  and  Stinkard  fathers,  or  of  Sun 
fathers  and  Stinkard  mothers ;  the  Honored  People  included 
children  of  Honored  women  and  Stinkard  fathers,  and  of 
Noble  fathers  and  Stinkard  mothers ;  finally,  the  large  class 
of  Stinkards  was  recruited  from  plebeian  inter-marriages  or 
from  the  unions  of  Stinkard  mothers  and  Honored  men. 

Rather  more  amazing  than  the  caste  system  itself  are  its 
outward  manifestations,  which  are  utterly  un-American  if 
judged  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  other  Indians  of  the 
continent  and  reveal  little  of  that  personal  dignity  ascribed 
to  the  noble  Red  man  in  Morgan's  characterization.  The 
descriptions  of  court  etiquette  by  the  French  chroniclers 
rather  suggest  the  atmosphere  surrounding  an  Oriental 
potentate  than  the  position  of  an  Indian  chief.  "The  ven- 
eration which  these  savages  have  for  the  great  chief  and 


RANK  353 

for  his  family  goes  so  far  that  whether  he  speaks  good  or 
evil,  they  thank  him  by  genuflections  and  reverences  marked 
by  howls."  This  attitude  had  a  religious  foundation  since 
the  Suns  were  reckoned  descendants  of  the  Sun,  the  su- 
preme deity,  and  capable  of  averting  evil  by  their  interces- 
sion. The  Great  Sun  towered  above  the  rest  of  his  kin  in 
grandeur  and  was  hedged  about  with  special  prohibitions. 
No  one  but  his  wife  might  eat  with  him,  and  when  he  gave 
the  leavings  to  his  own  brothers  he  would  push  the  dishes 
toward  them  with  his  feet.  The  Stinkards  were  treated  as 
so  much  dirt,  and  on  the  death  of  a  Sun  his  servants  were 
obliged  to  die  with  him.  The  intermediate  grades  were 
clearly  of  some  consequence,  especially  did  a  council  of  the 
older  warriors  serve  as  a  check  on  the  authority  of  the 
sovereign. 

Thanks  to  the  labors  of  Boas,  Swanton,  Sapir,  Barbeau, 
and  others,  our  data  on  the  Northwest  Coast  suffice  to  af- 
ford a  clear  idea  of  their  caste  system.  Both  as  to  its  ex- 
istence and  as  to  the  intensity  of  the  correlated  sentiments 
there  is  no  doubt ;  endogamy  was  strongly  fostered ;  and 
even  a  few  years  ago  Barbeau  was  able  to  observe  the  ab- 
ject servility  with  which  the  plebeian  children  at  a  Govern- 
ment school  treated  the  royal  bratlings.  Three  classes  are 
recognized — the  nobles,  the  commoners,  and  the  slaves. 
The  last-mentioned  group  may  be  briefly  dismissed.  It  was 
recruited  from  captives,  who  after  the  Maori  fashion  were 
not  ill-treated  but  were  at  any  time  liable  to  be  put  to  death, 
whether  as  a  ritualistic  sacrifice  or  to  gratify  a  mere  whim 
of  their  master's.  For  example,  at  one  of  those  public 
festivals  where  each  grand  seignior  sought  to  excel  his  peers 
in  his  magnificent  scorn  of  property  a  slave  would  be  killed 
to  enhance  his  master's  display  of  magnificence;  and  an  in- 
dignity, even  from  natural  causes,  could  be  properly  wiped 
out  only  by  the  slaying  of  a  slave.  The  commoners  are  a 
group  of  lowly  freemen  or  of  very  remote  and  hence  un- 
privileged kinsmen  and  in  a  way  retainers  of  the  nobles. 


354  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Among  the  slaves  and  the  commoners  there  are  no  fur- 
ther gradations  of  rank;  not  so  in  the  nobihty,  where  no- 
tions of  precedence  are  developed  with  all  the  nicety  of  the 
Polynesians.  Status  depends  mainly  on  the  ownership  of 
those  principally  incorporeal  forms  of  property  outlined  in 
a  previous  chapter.  Its  clearest  outward  manifestation  is  in 
the  seating  arrangement  at  public  celebrations,  where  the 
seats  are  carefully  graded  as  to  rank.  But  owing  to  the 
variety  of  privileges  there  is  not  necessarily  any  one  noble 
who  is  reckoned  preeminent  in  an  absolute  sense.  One  will 
rank  the  other  in  seating  and  yield  the  priority  to  another 
when  the  order  of  being  invited  to  a  feast  i§  at  stake,  and 
so  on.  However,  a  correlation  does  obtain,  so  that  usually 
many  high  prerogatives  are  linked  under  the  ownership  of 
the  same  person. 

The  theoretical  independence  of  multiple  prerogatives  is 
at  least  partly  connected,  as  Sapir  suggests,  with  the  strong 
sentiment  that  each  privilege  originated  in  a  definite  locality 
of  which  the  memory  is  retained  long  after  place  and  pre- 
rogative have  become  dissociated.  Thus  it  may  come  about 
that  an  individual  has  inherited  rights  associated  with  dis- 
tinct villages,  and  in  that  case  he  may  split  his  patrimony, 
transmitting  one  set  to  an  elder  son  and  another  to  a 
younger  one,  who  may  be  established  in  the  proper  com- 
munity under  his  father's  tutelage.  This  form  of  succes- 
sion would  of  course  hold  only  for  the  patrilineal  tribes ; 
the  Coastal  tribes  farther  north  have  matrilineal  descent 
and  by  the  avunculate  transmit  privileges  to  the  sister's 
sons. 

Sapir  strongly  emphasizes  the  fact  that  in  spite  of  the 
stressing  of  rank  it  is  the  lineage,  the  group  rather  than  the 
individual,  that  counts.  "Among  the  Nootka  Indians,  for 
instance,  an  old  man,  his  oldest  son  say,  the  oldest  son  of 
the  son,  and,  finally,  the  infant  child  of  the  latter,  say  a 
daughter,  form,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  single  socio- 
logical personality.     Titularly  the  highest  rank  is  accorded, 


RANK  355 

among  the  Nootka,  to  the  httle  child,  for  it  is  always  the 
last  generation  that  in  theory  bears  the  highest  honors.  In 
practice,  of  course,  the  oldest  members  of  the  group  get 
the  real  credit  and  do  the  business,  as  it  were,  of  the  in- 
herited patrimony;  but  it  would  be  difficult  in  such  a  case 
to  say  where  the  great-grandfather's  privileges  and  stand- 
ing are  marked  off  against  those  of  his  son,  or  grandson, 
or  great-granddaughter."  This  is,  of  course,  a  point  al- 
ready illustrated  with  respect  to  other  social  phenomena, 
viz.,  the  tendency  of  primitive  man  to  merge  the  individual 
in  the  group,  as  in  the  arrangement  of  matrimonial  unions. 
It  cannot  l3e  denied  that  there  is  something  about  the 
caste  organization  of  the  Northwest  Indians  that  suggests 
Polynesian  arrangements.  Nootka  primogeniture  furnishes 
a  parallel  to  Maori  usage;  the  slaying  of  a  slave  at  the 
erection  of  a  house  represents  a  rather  specific  resemblance ; 
and  above  all  the  atypical  nature,  from  an  American  point 
of  view,  of  any  caste  system,  joined  to  its  occurrence  on 
the  Pacific  side  of  the  continent  might  arouse  suspicions  of 
an  Oceanian  origin.  However,  these  circumstances  are 
hardly  to  be  judged  conclusive.  The  Natchez  furnish  an 
example  of  an  interior  tribe  that  has  developed  a  radically 
different  scheme  of  hereditary  class  distinctions,  showing 
that  such  divisions  may  arise  spontaneously.  Further,  the 
Polynesian  and  the  Columbian  systems  have,  after  all,  a 
different  character:  The  Indians  lack  the  exuberant  sense 
for  genealogy,  while  the  Polynesians  evince  no  taste  for 
that  type  of  privileges  which  serves  to  distinguish  the  nobles 
of  the  Northwest  Coast.  We  may,  therefore,  assume  an 
independent  evolution  of  castes  in  these  two  regions.* 

Conclusion 

The  foregoing  summary  of  American,  African  and 
Oceanian  conditions  conclusively  refutes  the  view  that  prim- 
itive society  was  uniformly  averse  to  the  aristocratic  spirit. 


356  primitivp:  society 

Slavery  did  not  commence,  as  Morgan  fancied,  in  communi- 
ties conversant  with  the  smelting  of  iron,  the  domestica- 
tion of  cattle,  or  the  use  of  irrigation  and  stone  architecture. 
It  occurs  in  the  far  ruder  stage  represented  by  the  Neolithic 
Polynesians  and  the  non-agricultural  Nootka,  as  does  the 
segmentation  of  society  into  castes  and  gradations  of  rank. 
But  even  in  genuinely  democratic  communities  where  chil- 
dren are  sociologically  equal  at  birth  their  psychological  dif- 
ferences produce  inevitable  differences  in  social  estimation 
that  make  of  society  an  aggregate  of  individuals  rather  than 
an  agglomeration  of  undifferentiated  automata. 

Still  another  point  merits  attention.  How  far  do  the 
facts  cited  harmonize  with  that  economic  interpretation  of 
history  which  we  have  had  occasion  to  scrutinize  once  be- 
fore? It  must  be  confessed,  very  indifferently.  When  a 
Tsimshian  chief  murders  a  slave  to  retrieve  the  prestige  his 
daughter  has  lost  by  a  wound  or  when  a  Kwakiutl  in  a 
paroxysm  of  vainglory  confounds  a  social  rival  by  destroy- 
ing a  canoe  and  breaking  a  copper  plate  valued  at  a  thou- 
sand blankets,  the  motive  is  manifestly  as  far  removed  from 
the  economic  as  it  can  well  be.  So  the  Plains  Indian  fought 
not  for  territorial  aggrandizement  nor  for  the  victor's 
spoils,  but  above  all  because  fighting  was  a  game  worth 
while  because  of  the  social  recognition  it  brought  when 
played  according  to  the  rules.  True,  the  stealing  of  horses 
was  one  of  the  principal  factors  in  warfare.  But  why  did 
a  Crow  risk  his  neck  to  cut  loose  a  picketed  horse  in  the 
midst  of  the  hostile  camp  when  he  could  easily  have  driven 
off  a  whole  herd  from  the  outskirts?  And  what  was  the 
point  in  granting  distinction  not  to  the  warrior  who  had 
killed  or  wounded  the  foeman  but  to  him  who,  however 
lightly,  touched  his  body?  Why,  finally,  that  Polynesian 
punctilio  about  precedence?  Were  it  a  matter  of  setting  off 
the  dominant  from  a  subject  people,  a  utilitarian  reason 
might  be  given.  But  that  was  not  the  case.  Between  the 
blue-blood  and  the  plebeian  bickering  as  to  priority  was  in- 


RANK  357 

conceivable ;  it  was  solely  a  question  of  superiority  among 
the  patricians,  and  of  a  kind  of  superiority  linked  with  no 
temporal  advantage  but  constituting  its  own  reward.  Thus, 
the  utilitarian  doctrine  completely  breaks  down  in  the  in- 
terpretation of  aboriginal  consciousness.  Primitive  man  is 
not  a  miser  nor  a  sage  nor  a  beast  of  prey  but,  in  Tarde's 
happy  phrase,  a  peacock. 

References 

^  Marett. 

2  Lowie,  1912:  230;  id.,  1917  (a):  82.  Merker:  92,  216. 
Hollis,  1905 :   289,  298,  353  seq.    Cole :  96. 

3  Dixon,  1905:  223,  267,  323;  id.,  1907:  451.  Goddard, 
1903:  58.  Radloff:  1,312.  Bogoras,  614,  639.  Boas,  1897: 
341  seq.     Sapir,  191 5:   355  seq. 

*Tregear:  123,146,163,383.  Stair:  65  seq.,  147.  Turner: 
173.  Kramer:  i,  31.  Roscoe,  igii:  14,  187,  269.  Torday 
and  Joyce:  60.  Merker:  lii.  Swanton,  1911:  93,  100  seq. 
Sapir,  191 5:    355  seq. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


GOVERNMENT 


COMPARED  to  the  effort  expended  on  the  elucidation 
of  the  family  and  sib  organization,  the  theoretical 
work  devoted  to  the  political  institutions  of  primitive  tribes 
has  been  almost  negligible  in  quantity.  Indeed,  as  we  shall 
see  later,  there  has  been  a  rather  persistent  attempt  to  deny 
the  very  existence  of  such  a  thing  as  political  organization 
properly  so  called  in  the  ruder  cultures.  That  is,  of  course, 
a  point  of  primary  importance,  to  which  we  must  revert. 
For  the  present,  however,  it  will  be  best  to  view  the  facts 
without  theoretical  prepossession  of  any  sort  and  to  inquire 
merely  what  governmental  agencies  exist  in  different  areas 
and  how  they  are  correlated  with  features  of  aboriginal 
life  already  sketched  in  previous  chapters.  Though  I  shall 
employ  the  word  'political'  for  convenience'  sake,  for  the 
present  I  do  so  merely  to  denote  legislative,  executive  and 
judicial  functions  and  its  use  in  no  way  prejudges  the  ques- 
tion to  be  broached  after  a  survey  of  the  concrete  data. 
These  several  functions,  as  has  sometimes  been  pointed  out, 
are  often  merged.  The  Australian  council  issues  ordi- 
nances, directs  their  execution,  and  passes  judgment  on 
criminal  offences,  and  the  same  is  true  of  corresponding 
governing  agencies  elsewhere.  But  it  should  be  noted  that 
the  legislative  function  in  most  primitive  communities 
seems  strangely  curtailed  when  compared  with  that  exer- 
cised in  the  more  complex  civilizations.  All  the  exigencies 
of  normal  social  intercourse  are  covered  by  customary  law, 
and  the  business  of  such  governmental  machinery  as  exists 

358 


GOVERNMENT  359 

is  rather  to  exact  obedience  to  traditional  iisap^e  than  to 
create  new  precedents.  Under  the  despotic  rule  of  some  of 
the  African  or  Oceanian  autocrats  this  principle  naturally 
does  not  hold  to  nearly  the  same  degree.  A  Zulu  monarch 
was  able  to  abrogate  the  time-honored  usage  of  circum- 
cision by  a  royal  edict  and  the  decrees  of  a  Hawaiian  sover- 
eign could  absolve  men  from  obedience  to  established  law. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  probable  that  even  in  such  extreme  cases 
the  transactions  of  social  intercourse  were  regulated  in  a 
far  greater  measure  by  the  time-honored  usages  of  antiquity 
than  by  the  sum-total  of  these  autocratic  ukases. 

In  the  present  chapter  we  are  more  particularly  concerned 
with  the  question  of  the  existence  and  character  of  a  central 
governing  agency;  for  practical  reasons  the  administration 
of  justice  will  be  treated  separately  in  the  one  following. 

Australia 

The  salient  feature  of  Australian  public  life  is  the  domi- 
nance of  the  aged  men.  There  are  local  differences  as  to 
the  powers  of  the  elders'  class  as  a  whole,  but  almost  every- 
where the  women  are  rigidly  excluded  from  political  ac- 
tivity and  everywhere  young  men  are  reckoned  of  little  if 
any  importance  in  the  tribal  deliberations.  Nevertheless 
within  the  limits  of  this  gerontocracy,  to  use  Dr.  Rivers'  apt 
term  for  the  rule  of  elders,  interesting  differences  have 
arisen. 

The  Dieri  furnish  a  favorable  example  of  one  of  the  va- 
rieties found.  The  assembly  of  full-fledged  men,  i.e.,  of 
men  who  have  passed  through  the  initiation  ceremony  offi- 
cially conferring  the  status  of  maturity,  constituted  prac- 
tically a  secret  society,  for  to  divulge  the  acts  of  this  par- 
liament was  to  court  death.  The  subjects  discussed  in- 
cluded cases  of  murder  by  magic,  transgression  of  the  incest 
rules,  and  ceremonial  arrangements.  It  was  this  body  that 
dispatched  an  armed  party  to  kill  a  murderous  sorcerer  and 


36o  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

re-allotted  concubines  on  festive  occasions.  Apparently  no 
vote  was  taken:  "If  all  were  agreed  to  some  course  the 
council  separated,  if  not,  then  it  met  at  some  future  time." 
So  far  we  are  dealing  merely  with  the  elders  as  a  whole. 
But  their  proceedings  were  directed  by  the  principal  head- 
man, who  gave  instructions  for  the  summoning  of  the 
council  and  led  the  discussion.  In  the  'sixties  of  the  last 
century  the  chieftaincy  belonged  to  one  Jalina-piramurana, 
who  had  inherited  the  position  from  his  father.  He  is 
described  as  "a  man  of  persuasive  eloquence,  a  skilful  and 
brave  fighting-man,  and  a  powerful  medicine-man."  He 
was  universally  reverenced  and  received  presents  from  va- 
rious local  groups,  which  he  generously  distributed  among 
his  friends.  He  was  able  to  prevent  fighting,  his  decisions 
being  accepted  without  murmuring.  None  of  the  elders,  in- 
cluding his  own  brothers,  dared  interfere  with  his  decrees. 
In  short,  we  here  have  a  case  of  extraordinary  authority 
due  to  an  unusual  personality.  Jalina-piramurana  eclipsed 
his  father  and  doubtless  was  not  equaled  in  importance  by 
his  successor.  The  fact  is,  however,  noteworthy  that  in 
this  section  of  Australia  there  is  a  frequent  tendency  to- 
ward the  evolution  of  preeminent  headmen  whose  office  de- 
scended from  father  to  son. 

Rather  different  are  the  conditions  in  the  central  area 
inhabited  by  such  peoples  as  the  Arunta  and  the  Warra- 
munga.  Here  there  is  no  single  individuality  that  could 
be  considered  the  tribal  chief ;  but  neither  is  there  anything 
in  the  nature  of  a  general  elders'  council.  What  happens  is 
that  each  local  totem  group  has  a  headman  whose  office  de- 
scends from  father  to  son,  and  that  from  these  headmen, 
whose  functions  are  mainly  if  not  wholly  ceremonial,  are 
recruited  the  members  of  a  governing  board.  This  is  a 
close  corporation  of  a  very  few  of  the  most  important  eld- 
ers. Their  number  is  not  fixed,  but  hovers  about  five;  ten 
or  twelve  is  mentioned  as  most  unusual.  This  council  meets 
quite  informally  and  without  any  regular  speeches.    All  its 


GOVERNMENT  361 

members  are  headmen,  and  if  some  other  headman  has  con- 
mended  himself  to  them  through  his  abiHty  and  pubHc  spirit 
they  will  some  day  reward  him  by  an  invitation  to  join  their 
deliberations.  The  oligarchs  are  implicitly  ol^eyed  by  the 
whole  tribe  and  completely  control  every  matter  of  public 
concern.  On  the  other  hand,  the  younger  men,  even  though 
of  mature  years,  are  of  no  importance  whatsoever  and  pay 
the  utmost  homage  to  the  leading  elders. 

The  aborigines  of  North  Queensland  do  not  conform 
strictly  to  either  the  Arunta  or  the  Dieri  pattern  in  their 
camp  council.  It  is  evidently  a  rather  larger  body  than 
that  of  the  Central  Australians,  for  it  includes  all  the  older 
men  of  some  consequence.  But  among  these  there  is  no 
single  one  that  rises  to  a  status  of  supremacy.  What  gra- 
dations of  power  there  are  depend  on  personal  factors:  a 
man  who  has  passed  through  the  various  stages  leading  to 
an  elder's  status,  or  one  of  fighting  quality,  or  with  a  large 
following  acquired  by  plural  marriage,  is  likely  to  exercise 
more  than  usual  influence.  The  nature  of  the  discussions 
closely  resembles  that  noted  for  the  Dieri.  Questions  of 
peace  and  war,  the  reception  of  strangers,  the  shifting  of 
the  camp,  the  punishment  of  incest,  and  the  prevention  of 
brawls  within  the  settlement  all  fall  within  the  province  of 
the  elders'  assembly,  while  such  acts  as  infanticide  or  the 
maiming  of  an  adulterous  wife  are  deemed  purely  private 
matters  with  which  the  council  does  not  interfere.^ 

Polynesia  and  Micronesia 

That  excessive  regard  to  differences  of  pedigree  which  is 
so  conspicuous  a  feature  of  the  Polynesians  does  not  neces- 
sarily involve  the  political  ascendancy  of  the  noblest  patri- 
cians. This  is  most  clearly  demonstrated  by  the  example 
of  New  Zealand  and  Samoa,  though  it  is  probable  that  the 
condition  there  found  represents  a  later  development,  as 
will  be  indicated  below. 


362  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

It  is  not  easy  to  define  briefly  and  with  precision  the  polity 
of  the  New  Zealanders.  That  there  was  nowhere  a  vast 
realm  governed  by  a  supreme  liege  lord,  is  clear.  But  it  is 
not  so  easy  to  determine  the  constitutional  powers  of  those 
chiefs  of  exalted  lineage  but  restricted  territory  who  pre- 
sided over  the  numerous  tribes  engaged  in  constant  warfare 
with  one  another.  On  the  one  hand,  we  learn  that  though 
primogeniture  might  confer  the  purple  with  the  mitre,  only 
the  latter  was  an  inalienable  appendage  of  birth.  The 
landed  gentry  who  constituted  the  backbone  of  the  nation 
could  depose  an  heir-apparent  whose  cowardice,  avarice  or 
incapacity  had  estranged  the  people ;  and  they  would  elect 
in  his  place  a  worthier  representative  of  the  kin,  say,  an 
uncle  or  brother.  In  a  sense,  then,  the  prince  was  only  the 
first  gentleman  of  the  tril>e.  On  the  other  hand,  his  re- 
ligious character,  if  not  degraded  by  especially  grievous 
faults,  invested  him  with  an  atmosphere  of  awe  that  evi- 
dently bestowed  not  a  little  authority  in  all  the  phases  of 
life.  Thus,  he  acted  not  merely  as  an  intercessor  with  the 
gods,  consecrating  warriors  before  the  fray,  blessing  the 
crops  and  regulating  the  ritual,  but  also  served  as  a  judge  in 
property  disputes,  conducted  horticultural  operations  and 
was  entitled  to  the  first-fruits,  to  wrecked  canoes,  and  to 
cetaceans  caught  ashore. 

Indissolubly  bound  up  with  the  temporal  powers  of  a 
prince  or  noble  was  the  characteristically  Polynesian  pre- 
rogative of  imposing  a  taboo,  which  probably  attained  as 
high  a  development  in  New  Zealand  as  anywhere  through- 
out the  region.  It  is  impossible  to  follow  the  native  con- 
cept through  all  its  labyrinthine  ramifications  since  we  are 
here  concerned  only  with  its  political  import.  This  was 
sufficiently  simple  in  principle,  though  most  far-reaching  in 
practical  results.  The  noble  or  chief,  partaking  of  the  di- 
vine essence  of  which  he  was  the  incarnation,  was  able  to 
communicate  his  contagious  holiness  so  that  the  objects  in 
question  could  not  be  appropriated  by  any  one  but  a  superior 


GOVERNMENT  363 

in  rank.  He  mig^ht  stop  traffic  on  a  river  or  cause  great 
inconvenience  to  his  people  by  tabooing  a  forest.  This  was 
generally  done  by  putting  up  a  pole  with  a  bunch  of  rags 
or  leaves  or  by  erecting  some  corresponding  notice-board. 
Infringement  of  a  taboo  was  not  merely  a  crime  but  spirit- 
ual iniquity  calling  down  the  wrath  of  the  gods,  who  would 
visit  the  offender  with  disease  or  death.  Even  outside  of 
Polynesia  the  Oceanians  practise  the  taboo  custom  in  diluted 
form.  The  method  followed  by  the  Melanesian  Ghost  so- 
cieties for  safeguarding  personal  property  (p.  279)  falls  in 
this  category,  and  though  in  the  Banks  Islands  it  is  the 
offended  organization  that  inflicts  condign  chastisement 
Dr.  Rivers  shows  that  in  the  Solomons  corresponding  trans- 
gressions are  supposed  to  be  automatically  punished  by  the 
ghosts,  a  belief  that  serves  as  a  connecting  link  between  the 
Melanesian  and  the  Polynesian  notion  of  taboo.  How  tre- 
mendous a  power  the  taboo  prerogative  conferred  on  its 
possessor  when  linked  with  the  office  of  chief,  hardly  re- 
quires exposition,  and  it  is  rather  remarkable  that  in  spite 
of  its  development  in  New  Zealand  the  chief  was  neverthe- 
less subject  to  loss  of  secular  ascendancy. 

On  the  essentials  of  the  Samoan  constitution  the  infor- 
mation is  clearer.  There  was  a  nominal  ruler  of  the  whole 
group — the  lord  who  had  secured  all  the  five  regal  titles 
from  the  electoral  districts  privileged  to  dispose  of  them. 
But  to  a  very  considerable  extent  each  district  was  autono- 
mous, as  appears  from  the  multiplicity  of  internecine  wars 
and  the  jealous  protection  of  local  boundaries.  Within  each 
district  there  was  a  dominant  settlement,  which  summoned 
the  local  parliament.  This  met  in  executive  session  in  an 
open  square  tabooed  for  the  time  being  to  all  outsiders, 
whose  intrusion  was  punished  with  death.  The  provincial 
chief,  the  rustic  aristocracy,  and  the  lesser  landowners  had 
access  to  this  assembly,  which  combined  legislative  and 
judicial  authority.  Village  chiefs  might  take  the  floor,  but 
usually  each  was  represented  l)y  a  speaker,  one  of  the  gen- 


364  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

try,  who  acted  as  his  mouthpiece.  The  right  to  address  the 
assembly  was  highly  prized,  and  in  consequence  all  those 
entitled  to  deliver  a  speech  would  rise  simultaneously  and 
contend  for  the  honor  of  the  first  oration,  frittering  away 
much  time  before  the  point  of  precedence  was  settled.  The 
orator  permitted  to  speak  was  again  confronted  with  a  mat- 
ter of  etiquette,  being  obliged  to  recite  first  of  all  the  va- 
rious honorific  designations  of  all  the  Samoan  districts,  the 
omission  of  any  one  of  which  was  regarded  as  an  affront. 
As  he  proceeded,  his  party  prompted  him,  refreshing  his 
memory  or  urging  a  choice  of  topics,  and  if  bored  by  his 
eloquence  they  had  the  right  to  bid  him  be  seated.  From 
other  groups  he  suffered  no  interruption  till  a  moot-question 
was  touched  upon,  when  the  orator  of  another  party  might 
take  the  floor  and  launch  a  debate.  Refreshments  supplied 
by  the  surrounding  villages  were  handed  about  during  the 
minor  speeches,  and  throughout  the  day  the  members  not 
actually  addressing  the  assembly  were  busy  plaiting  sinnet 
from  cocoanut  fiber. 

When  matters  affecting  several  districts  were  at  stake, 
the  dominant  settlement  of  the  district  which  took  the  initia- 
tive dispatched  messengers  informing  each  of  the  other  dis- 
tricts as  to  the  topic  for  deliberation.  Each  district  then 
had  a  separate  assembly  and  came  prepared  to  what  may  be 
styled  the  provincial  parliament.  Sometimes  the  principal 
men  of  the  first  settlement  would  make  the  rounds  of  the 
other  districts  canvassing  the  members  so  as  to  gain  their 
point  ultimately  in  the  formal  council.  Owing  to  the  ab- 
sence of  a  sense  for  centralized  government,  there  was  little 
cooperation  and  no  power  to  enforce  the  decisions  outside 
the  minor  groups. 

Generally  speaking,  it  was  the  assembly  of  country 
squires  that  had  the  whip-hand,  and  among  them  the  speak- 
ers stood  preeminent.  Their  influence  could  award  the 
district  chieftaincy  to  a  particular  individual  among  those 
qualified  by  virtue  of  pedigree,  and  though  unusually  gifted 


GOVERNMENT  365 

chiefs  exercised  great  powers  the  generahty  were  unable  to 
dominate  the  speakers  when  these  were  supported  by  the 
other  heads  of  famihes.  Accordingly,  unpopular  chiefs 
were  not  only  exiled  but  beaten  and  sometimes  even  killed 
by  their  subjects.  Their  hereditary  sacredness,  which  ren- 
dered them  taboo  like  the  Maori  priest-chiefs,  formed  an 
obstacle  to  such  summary  treatment,  but  Samoan  ingenuity 
rose  equal  to  the  task.  By  sprinkling  a  chief's  body  with 
cocoanut  water  they  rendered  him  profane,  formally  di- 
vested him  of  the  title  they  had  once  conferred,  and  were 
then  at  liberty  to  hack  him  into  pieces  if  they  so  chose. 

The  polity  of  the  Maori  and  the  Samoans  may  thus  be 
likened  to  a  state  of  barons  granting  precedence  to  the  ruler 
of  their  choice  but  without  allegiance  and  reserving  to  them- 
selves the  ultimate  voice  in  matters  of  government.  This 
differs  utterly  from  the  conditions  prevalent  in  Hawaii  and 
the  Marshall  Islands,  where  the  bulk  of  the  population  w^ere 
not  landowning  gentlemen  but  degraded  serfs  cringing  be- 
fore the  select  class  of  the  upper  Four  Hundred.  In 
Hawaii  there  was  even  a  distinct  tendency  toward  monarch- 
ical despotism,  though  there  is  evidence  that  the  patrician 
caste  w'as  not  without  influence  on  important  decisions. 
The  social  stratification  of  the  Marshall  Islands  has  already 
been  dealt  with  in  connection  with  property  rights.  It  was 
shown  that  the  aristocracy  is  sharply  divided  from  both  the 
middle-class  and  the  common  herd.  The  middle  class  com- 
prises the  expert  navigators  and  other  professionals  whose 
services  are  prized  in  this  region  of  the  globe ;  and  though 
their  utterances  have  no  legal  validity,  they  enjoy  the  re- 
spect of  the  nobility  and  may  hold  land  as  feudal  tenants. 
The  nobility  is  subdivided  into  a  higher  and  lower  caste, 
but  both  are  in  an  equally  absolute  sense  owners  of  their 
hereditary  soil,  and  though  the  lesser  chief  is  tributar}^  to 
the  greater,  his  allegiance  is  voluntary  and  in  case  of  seri- 
ous misunderstanding  complete  independence  ensues.  With 
reference  to  either  class  of  patricians  the  commoners  are  a 


366  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

body  of  pariahs  cultivating  the  chiefs'  lands  and  rendering 
all  manner  of  menial  services.  The  chiefs  are  not  only  sup- 
ported by  their  subjects,  but  have  access  to  their  wives  and 
daughters,  and  could  once  wantonly  destroy  the  lives  of  the 
plebeians.  This  relationship,  doubtless  fostered  for  ages, 
engendered  a  servile  frame  of  mind  on  the  part  of  the  op- 
pressed caste,  which  survived  the  pressure  of  necessity.  As 
late  as  1905  Father  Erdland  found  commoners  willingly 
jeopardizing  their  lives  to  prop  up  the  hurricane-shaken 
walls  of  a  princely  hut.  In  the  same  year  an  aged  fisher- 
man sunk  in  indigence  through  a  natural  catastrophe 
borrowed  money  from  the  missionary  to  fill  the  well-stocked 
coffers  of  his  lord  with  the  customary  annual  tribute. 
Though  the  colonial  administration  would  doubtless  have 
protected  the  supplicant  and  though  Erdland  offered  to 
plead  with  the  chief  and  have  him  remit  the  payment,  the 
commoner's  mind  was  not  set  at  rest  till  his  tears  had  won 
the  loan,  in  return  for  which  he  vowed  to  funiish  his  bene- 
factor with  fish  as  long  as  he  lived.  It  does  not  readily 
occur  to  man  to  adapt  himself  to  modified  social  conditions. 
The  Marshall  Islander's  psychology  does  not  differ  notably 
from  that  of  impoverished  gentlemen  in  our  own  civiliza- 
tion who  anachronistically  remain  class-conscious  members 
of  their  natal  caste  instead  of  joyously  throwing  in  their 
lot  with  their  new  associates. 

The  social  and  political  conceptions  diffused  with  many 
local  variations  over  the  whole  of  Polynesia  and  Micronesia 
must  have  had  an  intricate  history,  which  it  will  require  the 
efforts  of  many  specialists  to  unravel  in  detail ;  but  the  gen- 
eral course  of  development  has  been  most  plausibly  traced 
by  Waitz  and  Gerland.  Observations  by  the  earliest  trav- 
elers and  legendary  aboriginal  accounts  of  early  society 
suggest  that  several  centuries  ago  the  conditions  more  re- 
cently noted  in  Plawaii  were  prevalent  over  the  entire 
region.  This  is  a  conclusion  that,  moreover,  flows  logically 
from  the  divine  descent  of  the  nobility,  which  is  naturally 


GOVERNMENT  367 

converted  into  a  divine  right  to  rule.  From  this  point  of 
view  the  punctiHo  of  Maori  and  Samoans  in  matters  of  eti- 
quette and  genealogy  are  relics  of  an  earlier  stage  at  which 
differences  in  rank  were  not  nearly  so  largely  questions  of 
academic  interest  but  involved  differences  in  political  au- 
thority. That  so  rigid  an  insistence  on  caste  distinctions, 
so  hypertrophied  an  elaboration  of  the  theory  of  taboo, 
necessitates  a  very  long  course  of  development  preceding  it, 
is  evident ;  but  what  may  have  preceded  the  aristocratic  and 
theocratic  conception  of  Polynesian  philosophers  and  states- 
men eludes  historical  scrutiny.  We  can  only  surmise  that 
the  antecedent  condition  savored  of  the  simplicity  now  cur- 
rent in  the  remainder  of  Oceania.^ 

Melanesia  and  New  Guinea 

Those  parts  of  Melanesia  exposed  to  Polynesian  in- 
fluences, notably  New  Caledonia  and  sections  of  Fiji,  share 
the  theory  of  divine  princes;  elsewhere  the  chief's  status 
is  of  far  more  modest  character.  Among  the  Baining  of 
the  Gazelle  Peninsula,  indeed,  there  are  no  chiefs.  A  brave 
warrior  gains  distinction  and  the  title  of  'hero,'  forming  a 
nucleus  for  groups  of  men  so  long  as  his  prowess  is  main- 
tained. In  the  Banks  Islands,  too,  no  real  chiefs  occur,  for 
there  the  title  that  might  be  so  translated  is  inseparable  from 
membership  in  the  highest  grade  of  the  men's  club.  At- 
tainment to  that  degree  was  seen  to  be  dependent  on  wealth, 
and  in  that  sense  we  might  speak  of  a  plutocratic  govern- 
ment. But  it  is  clear  that  there  was  no  one  dominant  ruling 
body,  that  the  men  of  the  highest  grade  were  not  so  much 
potentates  as  persons  highly  esteemed  by  the  community, 
and  that  not  a  little  power  was  wielded  by  the  several  Ghost 
societies. 

Rather  more  complicated  arrangements  occur  in  Buin, 
Solomon  Islands.  Here  three  grades  of  chiefs  are  recog- 
nized, the  lesser  chiefs,  the  hundred  chiefs,  and  the  great 


368  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

chiefs.  The  lesser  chiefs  are  hardly  more  than  influential 
heads  of  families.  Any  one  possessed  of  sufficient  shell- 
money  to  erect  a  hall  with  several  wooden  drums  and  to 
organize  entertainments  in  it  can  become  a  lesser  chief. 
The  'hundred  chiefs'  are  not  necessarily  the  leaders  of 
fully  a  hundred  followers ;  indeed,  the  number  sometimes 
sinks  to  but  sixty,  including  servants.  These  chiefs  are 
generally  allied  with  one  another.  The  great  chiefs  are 
recruited  from  certain  prominent  families  and  are  always 
leagued  with  the  hundred  chiefs  and  lesser  chiefs  of  several 
districts.  It  is  in  fact  on  these  alliances  that  their  power 
rests.  All  three  grades  of  the  chieftaincy  are  inheritable, 
but  the  title  is  validated  only  when  the  claimant  has  built 
the  assembly  hall  and  entertained  his  neighbors,  whose  ac- 
ceptance of  the  invitation  is  equivalent  to  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  superiority.  Thus,  a  distinctly  timocratic 
element  is  associated  with  the  hereditary  principle.  The 
assembly  hall  is  a  men's  clubhouse,  council-chamber  and 
ceremonial  chapel,  from  which  women  are  ordinarily 
excluded. 

Alliances  are  ratified  by  a  solemnity  united  with  a  boy's 
initiation  into  the  tribe.  The  boy's  father  pledges  his  sup- 
port of  a  certain  chief  or  boasts  of  his  past  deeds  on  the 
chief's  behalf,  urging  him  in  return  to  protect  the  novice. 
There  is  an  exchange  of  gifts  and  it  is  possible  to  extend 
the  circle  of  allies  by  dispatching  presents  to  other  chiefs. 
All  those  leagued  together  in  this  fashion  assume  the  obli- 
gation of  the  blood-feud,  but  this  bond  is  a  purely  personal 
one,  that  is,  it  cannot  be  inherited  by  the  children  of  the 
allies,  who  would  have  to  undergo  a  similar  ceremony  in 
order  to  perpetuate  the  relationship.  Though  a  great  chief 
by  virtue  of  his  numerous  allies  can  play  an  important  part 
in  warfare,  he  has  no  authority  iDcyond  that  due  to  his 
personality.  He  does  not  interfere  with  the  privacy  of 
family  life  and  he  cannot  force  one  of  his  followers  to 
obey  a  command.     If  one  of  them  takes  umbrage  and  ab- 


GOVERNMENT  369 

sents  himself  from  the  hall,  the  chief  will  try  to  conciliate 
him  with  presents.  A  pouting  brave  might  otherwise  desert 
his  district  and  join  another  chief,  thereby  diminishing  the 
forces  of  his  native  settlement.  On  the  other  hand,  a  mis- 
creant who  transgresses  tribal  law  may  be  sent  into  exile. 
In  New  Guinea  the  chief's  role  is  an  equally  modest  one. 
Among  the  Kai  he  has  the  largest  field  but  then  his  is  the 
obligation  of  entertaining  all  guests  and  his  own  people  to 
boot.  He  is  the  wealthiest  of  the  villagers,  and  is  expected 
to  supply  his  helpers  liberally  with  tobacco  and  betel-nuts, 
to  slaughter  pigs  for  them  and  regale  them  with  other  deli- 
cacies. Beyond  his  general  claim  on  their  support,  he  has 
little  authority.  Every  tribesman  acts  as  he  sees  fit,  and  the 
chief  has  no  means  of  coercion.  Similar  conditions  obtain 
among  the  Jabim.  Every  one  helps  the  chief  build  a  house 
or  plant  his  field,  but  it  is  understood  that  a  lavish  enter- 
tainment will  compensate  them  for  the  work.  There  is  no 
popular  assembly,  but  on  important  occasions  there  are  ses- 
sions with  a  few  prominent  men,  at  which  deliberations  are 
conducted  in  a  very  low  tone  of  voice.  There  is  no  debate 
pro  and  con,  and  as  seems  the  universal  custom  of  the  ruder 
peoples  no  vote  is  taken.  A  common  formula  of  submitting 
to  the  will  of  others  is :  "Thou  hast  spoken,  and  thus  it 
shall  be."^ 

Africa 

The  political  institutions  of  Africa  are  of  peculiar  in- 
terest. Certain  differences  between  the  character  of  the 
social  gradations  found  there  and  that  of  corresponding 
features  in  Polynesia  were  pointed  out  in  a  previous  chap- 
ter. Politically  equally  noteworthy  differences  must  be 
noted  in  spite  of  the  occurrence  of  despotic  monarchs  in 
both  Africa  and  at  least  ancient  Polynesia.  For  one  thing, 
the  Negro  rulers  often  extended  their  dominion  over  an 
enormous  area,  so  that  in  comparison  the  exalted  sovereigns 


370  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

of  Hawaii  or  Tahiti  appear  as  petty  princelings.  This  can- 
not be  explained  by  geographical  considerations,  for  the 
Polynesians  were  admirable  navigators  and  could  easily 
have  established  something  of  a  maritime  empire.  Yet  the 
strength  of  centrifugal  tendencies  prevented  any  such  de- 
velopment. It  is  especially  remarkable  that  in  New  Zea- 
land, where  the  geographical  barrier  is  wholly  lacking,  there 
is  no  evidence  of  a  powerful  sovereign  uniting  dozens,  of 
tribes  under  his  scepter.  Secondly,  the  course  of  political 
history  in  Africa  seems  to  have  been  far  more  fluctuating 
and  capricious  than  in  Oceania.  In  Polynesia,  if  Waitz  and 
Gerland's  theory  is  accepted,  there  was  a  general  tendency 
for  the  large  body  of  landowning  gentlemen  to  possess 
themselves  of  an  increasing  measure  of  political  power. 
Among  the  Negroes  an  inveterate  disposition  to  monarch- 
ical rule,  though  qualified  by  the  influence  of  elders  or  other 
officials,  has  again  and  again  made  it  possible  for  forceful 
personalities  to  convert  themselves  into  absolute  tyrants; 
but  the  structure  reared  by  their  individual  efforts  utterly 
collapsed  under  lesser  guardians  or  degenerated  into  a  mere 
mockery  of  autocracy  with  various  functionaries  represent- 
ing the  real  power  behind  the  throne. 

The  Thonga  and  Zulu  jointly  furnish  an  especially  illum- 
inating sample  of  African  political  history  and  accordingly 
merit  a  place  of  honor  in  our  descriptive  account. 

The  territory  of  the  Thonga  is  split  up  into  a  considerable 
number  of  petty  principalities  politically  independent  of  one 
another,  though  united  by  virtual  community  of  speech  and 
custom.  In  each  of  these  diminutive  realms  there  reigns 
an  hereditary  monarch,  the  eldest  son  of  the  preceding  rul- 
er's queen  (not  necessarily  the  first  wife,  but  the  first  after 
his  accession).  His  office  is  invested  with  an  atmosphere 
of  sacredness ;  he  alone  is  entitled  to  the  honorific  salutation 
"Bayete !" ;  his  name  is  taboo  except  in  oaths ;  he  takes 
precedence  in  the  rites  of  the  first-fruits,  of  which  he  par- 
takes after  an  offering  to  the  spirits ;  and  above  all  he  is  in 


GOVERNMENT  371 

possession  of  a  powerful  charm  that  magically  insures  the 
invincibility  of  the  country.  The  king  exacts  tribute  in 
kind ;  he  receives  a  basket  of  food  from  each  kraal  at  harvest 
time  and  part  of  the  game  animals  killed  in  the  chase.  His 
subjects  must  till  the  royal  fields,  clean  his  public  square, 
build  and  repair  his  huts.  Finally,  he  appropriates  a  large 
portion  of  the  fines  imposed  by  him  in  court,  for  legislative, 
judicial  and  executive  functions  are  merged  in  his  person 
and  from  his  judgment  there  is  no  appeal. 

Although  the  king  thus  enjoys  great  prerogatives  and 
wields  considerable  authority,  he  cannot  be  described  as  an 
absolute  autocrat.  If  his  actions  run  counter  to  received 
standards  of  propriety,  he  is  severely  criticised  by  the  peo- 
ple and  may  even  be  deposed.  Secondly,  his  actual  powers 
are  divided  with  members  of  his  family.  By  the  established 
system  of  government  the  king's  kinsmen — sons  or  brothers 
— are  set  up  to  rule  over  the  provinces  of  the  state.  On  his 
accession  to  the  throne  a  new  monarch  may  find  these  rela- 
tives reluctant  to  acknowledge  his  suzerainty,  and  it  has 
repeatedly  happened  that  they  have  established  independent 
principalities.  Finally,  the  king  is  surrounded  by  a  group 
of  councilors,  mostly  mature  men  from  his  own  family, 
who  may  gain  great  infTuence  over  him,  even  to  the  extent 
of  determining  his  decrees.  Many  decisions  are  made  by 
this  assembly,  for  the  king,  though  presiding  at  the  meeting, 
will  frequently  take  no  part  in  the  debate,  merely  nodding 
his  assent. 

Family  disputes  are  fostered  not  only  by  the  method  of 
ruling  provinces  but  also  by  the  law  of  succession,  which 
attempts  to  reconcile  two  qi^ite  distinct  principles,  primo- 
geniture and  fraternal  inheritance.  The  eldest  son  of  the 
queen  is  indeed  the  theoretical  heir-apparent,  but  he  can 
only  ascend  the  throne  after  the  regency  of  all  his  father's 
younger  brothers.  These  are  naturally  in  effect  kings  and 
one  of  them  is  often  loath  to  surrender  the  sovereignty  to 
the  elder  line,  attempting  to  bequeath  it  to  his  own  son.    In 


372.  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

this  fashion  bitter  family  feuds  arise,  and  men  plot  to  rid 
themselves  of  closely  related  potential  rivals  with  all  the 
callousness  of  a  Borgia.  This  condition  of  affairs,  how- 
ever, may  tend  to  throw  some  authority  into  the  hands  of 
the  populace,  since  a  rival  needs  the  support  of  the  warriors 
in  order  to  gain  his  ends. 

There  is  little  ostentation  about  Thonga  kings  as  com- 
pared with  other  African  rulers.  They  do  not  differ  in  their 
attire  from  the  subjects,  sometimes  occupy  kraals  no  larger 
than  those  of  commoners,  and  may  indulge  in  so  modest  an 
occupation  as  scaring  sparrows  from  a  plantation.  Never- 
theless each  sovereign  is  surrounded  by  a  court  of  digni- 
taries with  a  characteristically  African  formality  of  pro- 
cedure. 

The  councilors  have  already  been  referred  to.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  cabinet  composed  of  the  king's  kinsmen,  there 
are  the  leaders  of  the  army;  the  diplomatic  staff,  each  of 
whom  has  one  of  the  adjoining  principalities  for  his  special 
subject;  and  the  minor  district  magistrates.  Another  group 
of  courtiers  is  composed  of  the  king's  personal  friends  and 
age-mates,  his  companions  in  feasts  and  games,  who  usually 
live  in  a  bachelors'  house  near  the  royal  dwelling.  While 
these  favorites  are  without  specific  functions,  the  herald 
enjoys  a  peculiar  official  status.  His  duty  it  is  to  appear 
before  the  king's  door  every  morning  and  to  exalt  the  ex- 
ploits of  the  ruler's  ancestors,  which  is  followed  by  vigorous 
disparagement  of  the  present  incumbent.  Eloquence  seems 
to  be  the  sole  qualification  for  this  office  and  what  is  its 
nature  here  may  be  gathered  from  a  few  characteristic  sen- 
tences in  a  long  rhapsody  by  a  distinguished  herald : 

"Muhlaba  Shiluvane  (the  king's  father),  you  are  like  the 
rhinoceros  who  seizes  a  man,  bites  him  through  and 
through,  rolls  him  over  and  cuts  him  in  two !  You  are  like 
the  crocodile  which  lives  in  water;  it  bites  a  man!  You  are 
like  its  claws ;  it  seizes  a  man  by  his  arms  and  legs,  it  drags 
him  into  the  deep  pool  to  eat  him  at  sunset ;  it  watches  over 


GOVERNMENT  373 

the  entrance  to  prevent  other  crocodiles   from  taking  its 
prey.  ... 

"Why  do  you  govern  them  so  mildly !  Look  at  them  with 
terrible  eyes!  You  are  a  coward!  .  .  .  Act  with  bravery 
and  defend  yourself !" 

At  least  equally  remarkable  is  another  licensed  character, 
the  "public  vituperator"  or  court  jester,  who  may  hurl  the 
most  offensive  insults  at  anyone  in  the  country,  from  the 
king  down.  He  may  wantonly  accuse  his  countrymen  of 
incest  and  snatch  food  from  the  hands  of  the  king  himself. 

The  precision  of  court  etiquette  is  well  illustrated  by  the 
customs  incident  to  the  visit  of  a  stranger.  The  visitor 
seats  himself  outside  the  central  square  of  the  capital  and 
announces  to  some  native  that  he  desires  to  see  the  chief. 
At  once  the  diplomat  in  charge  of  relations  with  the 
stranger's  principality  greets  him  and  announces  his  arrival 
to  the  king,  who  arranges  for  his  entertainment.  If  the 
matter  to  be  brought  before  his  majesty  is  of  some  moment, 
the  visitor  expounds  it  to  the  diplomat  dealing  with  the  rele- 
vant part  of  foreign  affairs.  This  official  repeats  the  speech, 
sentence  by  sentence,  to  one  of  the  king's  councilors  and 
he  in  turn  recounts  the  whole  tale  as  if  his  lord  had  not 
heard  it  all  before.  As  Junod  points  out,  this  procedure  is 
not  without  merit  among  people  devoid  of  written  records. 

The  Zulu  are  a  closely  related  people  living  to  the  south 
of  the  Thonga.  From  a  mass  of  ethnographical  material 
it  is  clear  that  their  condition,  say,  a  century  and  a  half 
ago  was  strikingly  similar  to  that  of  their  northern  fellow- 
Bantu.  About  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  they 
came  under  the  sway  of  a  neighboring  ruler,  Dingiswayo, 
who  had  organized  a  standing  army  and  by  its  aid  not  only 
conquered  various  native  tribes  but  also  established  himself 
as  an  autocrat  with  powers  far  transcending  those  of  his 
predecessors.  However,  he  was  outdone  by  a  Zulu  king, 
Chaka.  Building  upon  the  military  suggestions  offered  by 
Dingiswayo's  system,  Chaka  developed  it  into  an  even  more 


374  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

effective  engine  of  militarism  and  by  his  far-reaching  con- 
quests earned  the  title  of  the  "Napoleon  of  South  Africa," 
while  the  disturbances  caused  by  his  career  extended  as  far 
north  as  Lake  Tanganyika.  Two  fundamental  innovations 
were  introduced  by  Chaka.  For  one  thing,  he  substituted 
for  the  reed  javelins  hitherto  in  vogue  a  thrusting-spear  to 
be  used  at  close  quarters,  with  the  result  that  the  shock 
tactics  thus  originated  proved  quite  irresistible.  Secondly, 
he  organized  subjugated  tribes  so  that  they  strengthened 
his  own  forces.  More  especially  when  the  conquered  people 
were  not  immediate  neighbors,  all  but  the  boys  and  mar- 
riageable girls  were  put  to  death,  while  the  survivors  were 
placed  on  the  same  level  with  his  former  subjects — the  girls 
entering  his  seraglio,  the  boys  his  army. 

In  this  fashion  Chaka  succeeded  in  maintaining  a  stand- 
ing army  of  from  12,000  to  15,000  warriors.  Each  regi- 
ment of  from  600  to  1,000  men  occupied  a  kraal  or  bar- 
racks of  its  own.  Adolescent  boys  would  volunteer  for  en- 
listment, so  that  new  kraals  were  formed  every  year.  The 
novices  were  distinguished  by  their  black  shields,  those  of 
the  veterans  being  white.  As  soon  as  the  young  warriors 
had  distinguished  themselves  in  battle,  their  heads  were 
shaved  by  the  king's  orders  and  they  assumed  the  official 
status  of  'men.'  But  this  did  not  yet  entitle  them  to  settle 
down  in  marriage.  Soldiers  were  bachelors  so  far  as  legiti- 
mate matrimony  was  concerned,  though  nothing  prevented 
indulgence  in  love  affairs  with  women  of  nearby  civil 
kraals.  It  required  a  special  dispensation  of  the  king  for 
the  warriors  to  marry,  and  this  was  granted  individually  or 
wholesale  to  an  entire  regiment  only  for  special  service  or 
when  the  disabilities  of  age  had  become  evident.  The  mar- 
ried men  ranked  as  socially  inferior  and  formed  the  reserves 
of  the  royal  host.  The  soldiers  were  maintained  at  the 
king's  expense ;  as  many  as  twelve  head  of  cattle  might  be 
supplied  daily  to  a  single  barracks.  Freedom  from  eco- 
nomic necessity,  participation  in  the  .spoils,  and  the  social 


GOVERNMENT  375 

distinction  of  warriorhood  compensated  the  soldiers  for  the 
rigors  of  a  system  that  was  moulded  and  wielded  with  an 
iron  hand.  For  the  life  of  the  Zulu  military  was  not  one 
of  ease.  Obedience  was  exacted  to  the  most  extravagant 
commands;  pain  must  be  borne  without  flinching;  and  re- 
treat in  face  of  the  enemy  was  punished  with  death,  nay, 
from  a  policy  of  terrorism  after  every  battle  the  officers 
were  obliged  to  mark  out  for  slaughter  'cowards,'  whether 
there  had  been  such  or  not. 

With  such  a  force  ready  to  do  his  bidding,  Chaka  evolved 
a  despotism  beside  which  that  of  Dingiswayo  paled  into  in- 
significance. His  subjects  were  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
his  slaves,  whom  he  might  put  to  death  at  the  nod  of  his 
head.  They  were  not  permitted  to  render  services  to  any 
one  else  and  he  reserved  for  himself  the  monopoly  of  trade 
with  the  whites.  Chaka  had  for  his  advisers  two  principal 
ministers  superintending  his  own  kraal  and  a  group  of 
twenty  lesser  councilors ;  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  at  the 
height  of  his  power  the  monarch  could  override  their  oppo- 
sition. Yet  the  type  of  autocracy  founded  by  Chaka  bears 
within  itself  the  germ  of  disintegration.  In  order  to  be 
successful  it  requires  a  virile,  nay,  ferocious,  personality. 
The  form  of  government  itself  furnished  no  stability,  and 
as  it  makes  a  difiference  whether  a  Peter  the  Great  or  a 
Nicholas  is  Autocrat  of  Russia,  so  in  South  Africa  it  was 
not  the  same  whether  Chaka  or  Dingaan  held  the  reins, 
and  under  a  weaker  successor  the  royal  power  crumbled. 
While  Chaka  had  ruled  his  army,  the  warriors  ruled  Din- 
gaan, who  came  to  preserve  the  outward  appearance  rather 
than  the  substance  of  regal  authority. 

The  history  of  Zulu  government  within  the  brief  space  of 
less  than  a  century  thus  presents  a  typical  picture  of  African 
conditions.  In  the  modest  confines  of  a  petty  state  organ- 
ized on  the  principle  of  a  benevolent  monarch's  rule,  not 
without  checks  and  balances,  there  rises  an  imperious  ruler 
who  organizes  the  military,  terrorizes  and  subjects  to  his 


376  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

sway  adjoining  populations  and  makes  himself  an  absolute 
despot.  But  the  realm  created  by  his  energy  cannot  be  held 
together  by  the  epigonoi  and  it  splits  once  more  into  smaller 
units  presided  over  by  the  patriarchal  sovereigns  of  the 
earlier  type. 

A  comparison  of  the  Ewe  polity  with  that  of  the  related 
inhabitants  of  Dahomi  shows  practically  the  same  sequence 
of  events  among  the  Sudanese  Negroes  as  we  have  just 
traced  among  the  southeastern  Bantu. 

The  rulers  of  the  Ho-Ewe  are  even  farther  removed  from 
the  status  of  autocracy  than  the  Thonga  kings.  Though  the 
element  of  inheritance  enters  into  the  arrangement  of  suc- 
cession, the  king  is  chosen  from  a  number  of  possible  can- 
didates. The  aspirant  to  the  throne  attempts  to  conciliate 
influential  electors  by  gifts,  but  his  donations  are  not  all- 
important  since  the  candidate's  character  is  duly  considered. 
The  chiefs  nominate  the  man  of  their  choice  for  king  and 
the  populace  ratify  the  nomination.  There  follows  a  for- 
mal inauguration  in  the  presence  of  the  chiefs  and  a  limited 
body  representing  the  commoners,  for  the  rank  and  file  must 
never  view  the  throne  nor  some  of  the  other  regalia.  As 
the  king  is  elected,  so  he  may  be  deposed,  but  such  action  is 
most  exceptional,  being  resorted  to  only  when  the  sovereign 
has  seriously  injured  the  tribal  welfare.  An  ideal  king  is 
affable  and  hospitably  entertains  his  subjects;  in  court  he 
tempers  with  kindly  phrase  the  bitterness  of  an  adverse 
judgment;  in  private  life  he  is  an  industrious  horticulturist 
and  weaver. 

The  core  of  the  governing  body  is  formed  by  the  king 
and  two  local  chiefs,  assisted  by  a  speaker  and  his  deputies. 
Added  to  these  is  a  group  of  councilors  recruited  from  the 
heads  of  the  largest  families.  But  opposed  to  this  more  or 
less  aristocratic  body  are  the  rank  and  file  of  the  village 
community  presided  over  by  a  headman  and  his  speaker. 
This  headman  is  the  leader  in  war  and  acts  as  intermediary 
between  the  populace  and  the  chiefs.     The  people  have  the 


GOVERNMENT  377 

right  to  protest  against  the  decrees  of  the  ruHng  body  and 
their  objections  are  transmitted  through  the  headman  to 
the  council,  whose  members  are  careful  to  give  due  consider- 
ation to  the  wishes  of  the  subjects.  In  unusual  times  of 
stress  the  king  summons  a  popular  assembly. 

Though  the  king  is  thus  very  much  limited  in  power,  he 
is  not  without  the  outward  trappings  of  royalty.  The 
throne,  which  is  preserved  from  the  sight  of  vulgar  eyes, 
has  already  been  mentioned.  More  important  is  the  insti- 
tution of  personal  attendants,  sometimes  to  the  number  of 
twenty-four.  Some  of  them  are  beadles  who  summon  peo- 
ple to  court,  others  carry  the  king  in  a  special  basketry 
frame.  When  acting  officially  they  are  privileged  to  whip 
anyone  in  their  way  and  may  kill  and  eat  any  sheep  or  goats 
they  encounter.  They  receive  no  regular  pay  but  appropri- 
ate as  their  perquisites  a  large  part  of  the  court  fees.  Ac- 
cordingly it  is  to  their  interest  to  have  large  fines  imposed, 
and  this  obviously  may  become  an  ample  source  of  abuses. 

The  laws  which  enjoy  the  greatest  respect  and  of  which 
the  transgressions  are  most  severely  punished  are  not  the 
special  decrees  of  the  king's  council  but  those  rules  of  cus- 
tomary law  which  have  been  in  vogue  from  time  im- 
memorial— the  laws  against  murder  and  theft,  for  example. 
In  the  main  the  legislative  council  merely  adds  ordinances 
of  minor  significance.  These  decrees  are  first  discussed 
by  the  chiefs'  council,  then  submitted  to  the  village  as- 
semblies, whose  members  debate  among  themselves  before 
jointly  deliberating  on  the  matter  with  the  chiefs.  Only 
when  both  bodies  have  come  to  an  agreement  are  the  laws 
duly  ratified  and  must  then  be  heralded  to  the  people. 

The  Coastal  Ewe  di fleered  from  their  Ho  congeners  in 
that  the  commoners  had  no  voice  in  the  government  but  in 
the  limitations  of  royal  power  by  a  council  of  chiefs  they 
conform  closely  to  the  Ho  pattern.  A  fundamentally  dif- 
ferent condition  is  encountered  among  the  linguistically  and 
culturally  related  population  of  Dahomi.     Here  the  ruler 


3/8  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

appears  as  an  all  but  absolute  monarch ;  theoretically  he  was 
sole  owner  of  all  land  and  other  property,  which  was  held 
in  practice  only  through  his  tolerance ;  and  the  greatest 
officials  were  little  better  than  his  slaves,  obliged  to  grovel 
in  abject  deference  before  him.  There  was,  of  course,  no 
hereditary  aristocracy :  the  king  appointed  both  the  provin- 
cial chiefs  and  the  great  ministers  of  state,  and  of  these 
only  one,  combining  the  duties  of  police  commissioner  and 
lord  high  executioner,  might  not  be  beheaded  at  his  master's 
will.  The  power  over  life  and  death  was  a  distinctive  at- 
tribute of  royalty,  for  the  provincial  chiefs  were  only 
privileged  to  imprison  and  fine,  though  they  could  legally 
compass  the  death  of  their  subjects  by  indirect  methods, 
such  as  starvation  in  jail. 

The  great  national  officials  were  seven  in  number.  Fore- 
miost  stood  the  lord  high  executioner  and  the  superintendent 
of  public  festivals,  who  also  united  in  his  person  the  func- 
tions of  a  revenue-collector  and  an  intermediary  between 
the  sovereign  and  the  people.  These  two  officers  between 
them  appointed  a  successor  to  the  throne  from  among  the 
king's  sons,  for  though  primogeniture  was  favored  they 
had  the  power  of  setting  aside  the  customary  rule.  They 
also  judged  criminal  cases  and  were  in  a  preeminent  sense 
the  king's  advisers.  Next  in  order  of  rank  came  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  coastal  town  of  Whydah,  then  the  chief  of  the 
palace  interior,  a  eunuch  who  was  executed  on  the  death  of 
his  sovereign.  The  fifth  and  sixth  officers  were  the  chief 
military  commander  and  his  assistant,  both  of  whom  resided 
near  the  principal  gate  of  Agbomi,  the  capital.  Finally 
came  the  superintendent  of  the  plantations  supplying  the 
monarch's  household ;  in  addition  he  served  as  an  assistant 
to  the  lord  high  executioner.  These  seven  great  officials 
were  greeted  by  all  inferiors  with  marked  tokens  of  respect. 
This  organization  of  male  officials  was  exactly  duplicated 
by  a  series  of  female  dignitaries  in  the  palace  interior,  and 
though  their  authority  did  not  extend  beyond  the  palace 


GOVERNMENT  379 

they  formally  took  precedence  of  the  corresponding  male 
officers  because  of  the  legal  fiction  that  all  women  attached 
to  the  court  were  the  king's  wives. 

Of  lesser  rank  than  the  national  dignitaries  were  the 
civilian  captains ;  next  came  the  royal  attendants ;  below 
them  the  military  officers ;  then  the  provincial  chiefs  and 
officials ;  and  finally  the  traders.  The  rest  of  the  population 
were  practically  the  slaves  of  their  superiors. 

All  the  higher  officials  were  distinguished  by  insignia  of 
rank,  such  as  a  wooden  stool,  an  umbrella  canopy,  a  pipe 
and  tobacco  pouch,  and  ivory  clubs.  A  king's  or  chief's 
messenger  invariably  bore  a  stick  of  office,  which  served  as 
a  safe-conduct  and  was  received  with  the  same  esteem  as 
the  sender.  Any  disrespect  to  this  badge  was  reckoned  a 
serious  crime. 

Ellis  presents  a  sufficiently  lurid  picture  of  conditions  in 
Dahomi — commoners  plundered  and  browbeaten  by  the 
local  authorities,  chiefs  and  ministers  in  abject  subjection 
to  a  despotic  ruler,  an  espionage  system  that  threatened  the 
life  of  every  subject,  ceremonial  sacrifices  in  honor  of  de- 
ceased monarchs  at  which  hundreds  of  people  were  slaugh- 
tered to  convey  messages  from  the  ruler  to  his  ancestors. 
Tyranny  was  certainly  rampant  in  Dahomi,  yet  human  na- 
ture is  such  that  a  really  absolute  despotism  proves  insup- 
portable and  a  close  reading  of  the  evidence  shows  that 
even  the  Dahomi  despot  was  not  governed  solely  by  his 
whims.  Theoretically  omnipotent,  he  was  in  practice 
obliged  to  act  with  some  degree  of  circumspection.  A  sov- 
ereign of  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  who  wal- 
lowed in  blood  and  organized  gangs  of  men  to  plunder  his 
own  people  finally  precipitated  a  rebellion  that  led  to  his 
dethronement  and  death.  And  though  the  king  might  con- 
demn to  execution  individual  chiefs  and  officers,  he  was 
generally  careful  to  avoid  defying  at  the  same  time  the 
priests,  the  chiefs,  and  popular  prejudice.  His  exercise  of 
authority  was  undoubtedly  arbitrary  in  the  extreme ;  but  in 


38o  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

his  confiscation  of  property  and  infliction  of  capital  punish- 
ment he  did  not  appeal  so  much  to  the  powers  theoretically- 
vested  in  him  as  he  sought  to  lend  a  semblance  of  justice  to 
high-handed  procedure.  In  a  concrete  case  the  individual 
peasant  or  chief  was  pillaged  not  on  the  basis  of  an  abstract 
right  of  royalty  but  because  he  had  disobeyed  an  arbitrary 
ordinance  or  had  been  accused  of  plotting  against  his  lord. 
In  all  this  Dahomi  autocracy  differed  little  from  the  des- 
potic governments  of  more  highly  civilized  nations. 

A  comparative  survey  of  the  several  tribes  of  the  Ewe 
family  leaves  little  doubt  as  to  the  course  of  political  de- 
velopment in  this  area.  Underlying  the  systems  of  all  these 
peoples  we  have  that  differentiation  of  rank  which  is  so 
highly  developed  among  both  Bantu  and  Sudanese  Negroes. 
In  the  Ho  territory  this  characteristic  condition  remained 
perfectly  compatible  with  a  far-reaching  influence  not  only 
of  official  circles  but  even  of  the  rank  and  file.  Among  the 
Dahomi,  on  the  other  hand,  the  organization  of  a  relatively 
large  standing  army  maintained  by  the  king  gave  him  a 
preponderance  over  the  whole  remainder  of  society,  which 
was  checked  only  in  cases  of  exceptional  abuse.  Neverthe- 
less the  precise  power  of  a  particular  ruler  inevitably  de- 
pended on  his  personal  qualities. 

A  somewhat  different  condition  of  affairs  characterizes 
certain  other  Negro  populations,  e.g.,  the  Bakuba  of  the 
southwestern  Congo.  Here  political  institutions  seem  to 
have  enjoyed  a  certain  stability.  The  sovereign,  an  in- 
carnation of  the  deity,  is  theoretically  an  absolute  monarch 
and  is  surrounded  by  a  magnificent  court  comprising  male 
and  female  dignitaries  by  the  score.  He  is  treated  with 
extreme  reverence  on  public  occasions,  even  his  enemies  re- 
senting a  slight  offered  to  his  station.  This  does  not  pre- 
vent his  six  ministers  from  arrogating  practically  all  author- 
ity and  virtually  enslaving  him  by  exacting  fastidious 
observance  of  traditional  court  etiquette.  Though  it  is  not 
altogether  impossible  for  an  unusually  gifted  king  to  assert 


GOVERNMENT  381 

his  theoretical  prerogatives,  there  seems  less  chance  of  such 
an  occurrence  among  the  Bakuba  than  in  most  countries  of 
Africa.  The  grandees  treat  him  with  great  independence 
since  they  enjoy  a  safe  tenure  of  office,  and  while  the  sov- 
ereign theoretically  may  fill  any  vacancy  his  choice  is  prac- 
tically determined  by  the  force  of  public  opinion.  He  dare 
not  appoint  his  greatest  favorites  in  the  face  of  staunch 
opposition  and  is  sometimes  obliged  to  yield  a  lofty  position 
to  persons  he  heartily  dislikes. 

In  Yorubaland,  too,  there  is  merely  the  shadow  of  roy- 
alty.     A   king   deriving  his   title    from    divine   descent   is 
treated  with  all  the  outward  marks  of  respect  but  is  a  mere 
puppet  in  the  hands  of  his  cabinet.     Outside  of  his  capital 
there  is  complete  local  autonomy,  and  he  is  obliged  to  con- 
tent himself  wath  a  purely  nominal  recognition  of  his  sover- 
eignty over  a  host  of  city-states.    The  actual  government  of 
these  communities,  some  of  which  have  a  population  of  over 
100,000,    is   highly   interesting  because   it   illustrates   once 
more  the  necessity  of  correlating  the  several  aspects  of  a 
culture.    West  Africa  is  eminently  a  region  of  secret  organi- 
zations, and  in  Yorubaland  it  is  an  association  of  old  men 
called  the  Ogboni   that  has  usurped  the   supreme  power. 
They  form,  for  one  thing,  an  electoral  college  that  elevates 
a  suitable  tribesman  to  the  office  of  burgomaster  or  gover- 
nor of  the  town,  who  surrounds  himself  w'ith  an  impressive 
array  of  officials,  partly  appointed  by  himself  and  partly 
chosen  by  the  people.     During  his  term  of  office  the  gover- 
nor is  entitled  to  assistance  from  his  subjects  and  may  add 
to  his  possessions  by  punitive  expeditions  against  the  un- 
ruly.    But  he  is  wholly  dependent  on  the  support  of  the 
Ogboni.    As  soon  as  his  acts  are  contrary  to  their  interests, 
they  prove  by  a  casting  of  lots  that  the  deity  is  unfavorably 
disposed  to  his  continuance  in  office  and  effectively  remove 
him  by  clandestinely  administering  a  poisonous  potion.    The 
reign  of  the  governor  is  said  to  have  averaged  only  two 
years.    It  is  by  their  manipulation  of  the  divinatory  art  that 


382  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

the  Ogboni  terrorize  the  entire  population.  An  upstart  with 
a  Hmited  circle  of  retainers  whose  wealth  arouses  the 
cupidity  of  the  members  is  accused  of  some  crime  and  sum- 
moned to  an  ordeal.  The  dice  are  of  course  loaded  against 
him,  he  is  convicted  and  summarily  executed,  and  his  for- 
tune is  divided  among  the  Ogboni  and  the  burgomaster. 

Regardless  of  variations  in  time  and  space,  it  is  justi- 
fiable to  say  that  the  Negroes  evince  an  inveterate  proclivity 
for  at  least  the  forms  of  monarchical  government.  Appar- 
ently this  represents  essentially  an  old  cultural  heritage  of 
both  the  Bantu  and  the  Sudanese.  The  fact  cannot  be  im- 
pressed into  the  service  of  that  geographical  mysticism 
which  is  once  more  raising  its  head,  because  stocks  possess- 
ing a  different  set  of  traditions  depart  widely  from  the 
Negro  norm  even  though  they  may  live  surrounded  by 
Negro  tribes,  that  is,  in  the  identical  geographical  environ- 
ment. This  is  demonstrated  most  clearly  by  the  case  of  the 
Masai,  which  is  likewise  instructive  from  another  point  of 
view.  A  priori  one  would  certainly  be  inclined  to  con- 
jecture that  the  head  of  so  martial  a  people  must  be  some 
warrior  of  renown,  but  this  assumption  for  all  its  reason- 
ableness does  not  even  approach  the  truth.  Such  central 
power  as  exists  is  vested  in  an  hereditary  seer  who  is  not 
so  much  as  permitted  to  accompany  a  war  expedition,  but  is 
expected  to  prepare  a  medicine  insuring  the  warriors'  suc- 
cess and  to  foretell  future  events.  He  is  also  empowered 
to  appoint  by  divination  the  headmen  of  the  several  dis- 
tricts. But  though  he  enjoys  the  respect  due  to  a  holy  man, 
the  character  of  his  office  is  far  removed  from  that  of  a 
typical  Negro  autocrat.  He  is  more  of  a  national  saint 
than  a  ruler,  does  not  dispose  of  life  and  death,  indeed, 
rarely  acts  as  judge  at  all,  and  never  basks  in  the  splendor 
of  a  court.  Naturally  a  man  of  unusual  force  like  Mbatian, 
who  died  in  1890,  may  exercise  great  authority,  but  even 
then  there  is  nothing  approximating  the  autocracies,  real  or 
formal,  so  common  in  other  sections  of  the  continent.* 


GOVERNMENT  383 

North  America 

As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  the  Indians  of  North 
America  generally  incline  to  democracy  and  thus  contrast 
sharply  with  the  Negroes  of  Africa.  Departures  from  this 
norm  might  be  most  readily  expected  among  the  tribes  with 
a  clearly  defined  caste  system,  yet  only  among  the  Natchez 
do  we  find  a  centralization  of  authority  corresponding  to 
the  powers  of  an  African  despot.  The  Natchez  ruler  was 
not  merely  treated  reverentially  but  served  with  humility. 
His  least  wish  was  blindly  obeyed,  so  that  whenever  the 
French  required  rowers  or  hunters  they  merely  needed  to 
bribe  the  chief  into  requisitioning  the  services  of  an  ade- 
quate number  of  subjects,  who  received  no  compensation 
for  their  labor.  He  had  power  over  life  and  death,  and 
when  he  himself  died  his  attendants  and  others  as  well 
deemed  it  an  honor  to  accompany  him  to  the  hereafter. 
Needless  to  say,  all  the  best  products  of  the  chase,  fishing 
or  horticulture  were  yielded  as  a  tribute.  The  sovereign, 
whose  prerogatives  were  in  some  measure  shared  by  his 
closest  relatives,  appointed  his  ministers,  more  particularly 
two  war  chiefs,  two  temple  officials,  and  officers  regulating 
peace  treaties  and  the  performance  of  festivals.  Though 
the  contemporaneous  sources  cited  by  Swanton  agree  in 
exalting  the  chief  into  an  absolutely  autocratic  ruler,  inci- 
dental remarks  suggest  that  at  times  a  council  and  the  abler 
village  chiefs,  presumably  all  of  the  noble  caste,  could  ma- 
terially restrict  his  freedom  of  action.  Nevertheless,  the 
Natchez  institutions  remain  the  most  remarkable  example 
of  monarchy  north  of  Mexico. 

On  the  Northwest  Coast,  in  spite  of  the  rigidity  of  class 
distinctions,  the  strictly  political  powers  of  a  chief  were 
disproportionately  small  when  compared  with  his  social 
eminence.  With  the  Tlingit  he  merely  presided  over  col- 
lective deliberations;  in  general  the  head  of  every  family 
could  act  as  he  chose  so  far  as  he  did  not  collide  with  cus- 


384  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

tomary  law.  A  Tsimshian  chief  possibly  wielded  greater 
power:  he  decided  when  the  tril:>e  was  to  move  or  when 
fishing  operations  were  to  begin  and  he  was  entitled  to  a 
certain  tribute.  He  took  precedence  at  all  dances  and  com- 
manded over  messengers  and  attendants.  However,  he  was 
not  an  irresponsible  ruler.  As  leader  in  war,  he  had  to 
answer  for  the  losses  sustained  and  to  compensate  the  be- 
reaved kindred.  Matters  of  importance  were  decided  in 
council,  and  without  its  members'  consent  no  chief  could 
announce  a  potlatch  feast. 

The  democratic  individualism  not  wholly  suppressed  even 
in  Northwest  Coast  society  gains  almost  complete  ascend- 
ancy throughout  the  remainder  of  the  immense  territory 
under  consideration.  This  is  by  no  means  due  to  the  break- 
down of  ancient  chieftaincies  through  contact  with  Cau- 
casian civilization.  On  the  contrary,  everything  goes  to 
show  that  white  officialdom  tended  to  enhance  the  powers 
of  the  native  chiefs.  There  is  indeed  incontrovertible  evi- 
dence from  early  travelers,  reporting  observations  in  the 
most  widely  separated  regions.  The  great  Chipewyan  chief 
Matonabbee,  whom  Hearne  glorifies  in  an  amusing  panegy- 
ric that  would  do  more  than  justice  to  a  Lincoln  or  Pitt, 
did  not  have  sufficient  authority  to  prevent  a  muscular  In- 
dian from  abducting  one  of  his  wives.  Writing  of  the 
Algonkians  of  eastern  Canada  in  1612,  a  Jesuit  father  says  : 
".  .  .  each  man  is  his  own  master  and  his  own  protector. 
They  have  Sagamores,  that  is,  leaders  in  war;  but  their 
authority  is  most  precarious,  if,  indeed,  that  may  be  called 
authority  to  which  obedience  is  in  no  wise  obligatory." 
And  James  Adair,  who  had  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
Muskoghean  Indians  of  our  Southeastern  states  in  the  first 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century  declares  :  "The  power  of  their 
chiefs  is  an  empty  sound.  They  can  only  persuade  or  dis- 
suade the  people,  either  by  the  force  of  good-nature  and 
clear  reasoning  or  coloring  things,  so  as  to  suit  their  pre- 
vailing passions."     That  the  Crow  'chiefs'   were   for  the 


GOVERNMENT  385 

most  part  simply  warriors  who  had  achieved  conventionally 
acknowledged  deeds  of  valor,  has  already  been  explained. 

Certain  qualifications  will  be  made  presently ;  but  in  gen- 
eral the  absence  of  central  authority  is  one  of  the  most 
impressive  features  of  North  American  society.  It  might 
be  imagined  that  a  chaotic  condition  was  inevitable  under 
these  circumstances.  But  that  would  be  leaving  out  of 
account  the  tremendous,  not  to  say  terrific,  force  of  estab- 
lished custom  and  public  opinion.  To  meet  with  universal 
reprobation  on  the  part  of  one's  neighbors ;  to  have  derisive 
songs  sung  in  mockery  of  one's  transgressions ;  to  be  pub- 
licly twitted  with  disgraceful  conduct  by  joking-relatives — 
these  were  eventualities  to  which  no  Indian  lightly  exposed 
himself.  They  made  it  possible  to  dispense  largely  with  a 
powerful  executive  and  with  penal  institutions ;  while  the 
customary  law  sufficed,  rendering  new  legislation  un- 
necessary. 

Yet  while  covering  a  very  considerable  portion  of  the 
phenomena,  this  statement  does  not  do'  justice  to  all  the 
facts.  Circumstances  affecting  the  weal  and  woe  of  the 
community  required  more  concentration  of  power  than  was 
commonly  vouchsafed  to  a  more  or  less  honored  figurehead. 
This  is  illustrated  by  the  Plains  Indian  police  organiza- 
tions at  the  time  of  a  communal  Ixiffalo  hunt,  when  a  single 
false  step  might  have  scared  off  the  entire  herd  and  jeop- 
ardized the  food  supply  of  the  entire  camp.  Hence  the 
utmost  rigor  temporarily  supplanted  the  extreme  individu- 
alism of  normal  times.  Women  were  not  allowed  to  chop 
trees,  men  were  not  permitted  to  go  hunting  by  themselves 
lest  their  premature  efforts  imperil  the  success  of  the  co- 
operative enterprise.  The  police  not  only  confiscated  an  of- 
fender's game,  but  severely  beat  him,  broke  up  his  weapons, 
and  destroyed  his  tent.  If  he  offered  resistance,  he  was 
likely  to  be  killed  on  the  spot.  The  constabulary  had  other 
functions,  though  less  conspicuous  ones.  They  would  re- 
strain war  parties  from  setting  out  at  an  inopportune  mo- 


386  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

ment,  and  it  was  their  duty  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between 
tribesmen  whose  personal  hostility  might  lead  to  a  feud. 
The  constitution  of  this  police  force  varied  in  different 
tribes.  Among  the  Crow  one  of  the  titular  chiefs  would 
act  as  camp-chief  during  the  pleasure  of  the  people,  that  is, 
so  long  as  they  prospered  under  his  guidance.  His  function 
then  was  to  direct  the  movements  of  the  camp  and  to  dele- 
gate police  authority  to  one  of  the  military  organizations, 
which  took  turns,  though  by  no  fixed  rule,  in  policing  the 
camp  each  for  one  season.  The  Hidatsa  had  a  correspond- 
ing village  chief  responsible  for  the  welfare  of  the  people, 
but  the  police  power  was  permanently  associated  with  the 
Black-Mouth  society,  which  occupied  a  rather  high  but  by 
no  means  the  highest  degree  in  the  series  of  graded  organi- 
zations. 

Given  the  slight  authority  that  usually  accompanied  the 
chief's  office,  it  is  natural  that  important  decisions,  e.g., 
as  to  war  and  peace,  were  not  made  by  him  on  his  personal 
authority  but  only  in  consultation  with  a  council  of  mature 
men.  This  senate  or  cabinet  was  sometimes  indeterminate 
as  among  the  Northern  Maidu,  where  the  conference  was 
attended  in  a  general  way  by  the  older  members  of  the 
secret  society.  Elsewhere  there  was  a  fixed  number  of 
councilors.  The  Cheyenne  had  a  board  of  forty-four  elec- 
tive chiefs,  four  of  whom  ranked  as  superior  and  chose  a 
supreme  representative  of  the  tribe  from  their  own  num- 
ber. Among  the  Omaha,  too,  there  was  a  fixed  council  of 
seven  chiefs  with  a  life-long  tenure  of  office,  based  on 
the  achievement  of  meritorious  deeds.  Two  of  them 
ranked  as  preeminent  by  virtue  of  their  record,  and  the 
rest  were  graded  on  the  same  principle.  There  was  no 
popular  assembly,  so  that  the  Omaha  senate  seems  to  par- 
take of  the  nature  of  an  oligarchy.  However,  as  explained, 
their  status  rested  wholly  on  individual  merit  and  the  scope 
of  their  deliberations  was  restricted  so  that  it  did  not  in- 
terfere with  personal  liberty  in  the  affairs  of  ordinary  life. 


GOVERNMENT  387 

They  made  peace,  determined  the  time  of  the  annual  hunt, 
and  appointed  the  leader  of  the  hunt;  during  the  hunt  itself 
they  were  subordinate  to  the  man  chosen.  A  peculiar 
feature  that  characterized  the  discussions  not  only  of  the 
Omaha  but  apparently  all  similar  Indian  assemblies  is  the 
absence  of  majority  rule  :  every  decision  required  the  unani- 
mous consent  of  the  debaters. 

Indian  individualism  has  its  corollary  on  a  larger  scale 
in  a  strongly  developed  separatism.  The  2,000  Hopi  are 
sprinkled  over  seven  or  eight  completely  autonomous  vil- 
lages; even  the  tiny  hamlet  of  Shipaulovi,  with  barely  150 
inhabitants,  maintains  a  ceremonial  chief  and  celebrates  the 
whole  set  of  Hopi  ceremonials  independently  of  its  neigh- 
bors. This  attitude,  as  Professor  Kroeber  has  trenchantly 
demonstrated,  is  hypertrophied  on  the  Pacific  coast.  The 
word  'tribe'  there  loses  all  political  significance,  no  unit 
being  recognized  beyond  the  single  encampment  or  village. 
Maidu  villages  sometimes  united  for  an  attack  on  a  com- 
mon enemy,  but  the  league  was  of  the  frailest,  most  ephe- 
meral character,  and  that  jealous  safeguarding  of  com- 
munally owned  land  described  under  another  head  was 
directed  with  equal  severity  against  the  neighboring  Maidu 
village  and  against  the  intruder  of  alien  speech.  The 
Shasta  were  somewhat  less  particularistic,  for  they  grouped 
their  settlements  into  four  main  divisions,  each  embracing 
a  number  of  communities  under  a  common  headman;  yet 
these  units  were  of  diminutive  size  considering  that  the  total 
population  of  the  Shasta  at  the  time  of  their  discovery  is 
set  at  only  2,000.  Farther  east  the  tendency  to  disruption 
into  petty  groups  is  less  glaring  but  sufficiently  pronounced. 
The  Dakota  represent  anything  but  a  single  political  aggre- 
gate ;  the  Crow  not  only  remained  distinct  from  the  closely 
related  Hidatsa  but  split  into  at  least  two,  or  possibly  even 
three,  independent  local  divisions ;  and  everything  goes  to 
show  that  the  several  Hidatsa  and  Mandan  villages  were 
wholly  autonomous  units. 


388  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

Nevertheless  alliances  between  distinct  tribes,  that  is,  be- 
tween groups  of  diverse  speech  did  occur,  though  generally 
without  any  attempt  at  integration.  Only  the  Creek  in  the 
Southeast  and  the  Iroquois  of  New  York  State  founded 
something  after  a  more  pretentious  pattern,  and  the  League 
of  the  Iroquois  in  particular  merits  closer  consideration.  It 
comprised  primarily  five  tribes  speaking  distinct  but 
mutually  intelligible  languages.  Each  preserved  complete 
sovereignty  so  far  as  its  local  affairs  were  concerned,  which 
were  governed  by  a  board  of  chiefs.  There  was  no  one 
supreme  executive  magistrate  of  the  league  but  a  federal 
council  of  forty-eight  sachems,  the  Mohawk  and  Oneida 
having  nine,  the  Onondaga  fourteen,  the  Cayuga  ten,  and 
the  Seneca  eight  delegates.  This  uneven  distribution  did 
not  involve  tribal  hegemony  since  there  was  no  individual 
balloting,  the  principle  of  unanimity  being  applied  so  that 
every  tribe  had  a  single  expression  of  opinion.  Further- 
more, complete  concurrence  of  all  the  tribal  representatives 
was  necessary  to  give  validity  to  a  decision;  if  this  proved 
impracticable,  the  whole  matter  was  laid  aside  as  incapable 
of  effective  treatment.  The  federal  council  was  summoned 
at  the  initiative  of  any  of  the  tribal  councils ;  its  forum  was 
open  for  orations  by  any  member  of  the  league,  but  only 
the  forty-eight  senators  had  the  right  to  render  a  decision. 
These  councilors  represented  their  respective  sibs,  though 
not  every  sib  had  a  representative.  Each  was  chosen  from 
a  single  section  of  the  sib  on  nomination  of  the  women  of 
the  sib,  but  this  proposal  had  to  be  ratified  first  by  the  tribal 
and  then  by  the  federal  senate.  In  corresponding  fashion 
an  unworthy  incumbent  might  be  deposed.  There  was  thus 
a  blending  of  the  elective  and  hereditary  principle.  The  in- 
vestiture of  a  new  sachem  on  the  death  or  resignation  of 
his  predecessor  was  one  of  the  principal  occasions  for  the 
summoning  oi  the  council.  In  addition  the  reception  of 
embassies  from  other  tribes,  the  ratification  of  peace  and 
declaration  of  war  fell  within  its  jurisdiction.     The  devel- 


GOVERNMENT  389 

opment  of  this  confederation  doubtless  contributed  largely 
to  the  ascendancy  of  the  Iroquois  among  the  tribes  of  the 
northern  Atlantic  seaboard/ 

Democracy  and  Primitive  Organizations 

Having  briefly  examined  some  of  the  salient  ethnographic 
data,  we  are  now  prepared  to  wrestle  with  some  of  the  gen- 
eral problems  growing  out  of  them.  And  first  of  all  we 
must  pay  our  respects  to  Morgan's  view  that  primitive  in- 
stitutions are  invariably  bound  up  with  democratic  govern- 
ment. Monarchy,  he  holds,  is  incompatible  with  the  sib, 
which  it  must  be  remembered  he  regards  as  a  well-nigh 
universal  feature ;  "it  was  impossible  in  the  Lower,  in  the 
Middle,  or  in  the  Upper  Status  of  barbarism  for  a  kingdom 
to  arise  by  natural  growth  in  any  part  of  the  earth"  under 
a  sib  organization.  Such  an  evolution  belongs  to  the  later 
period  of  civilization,  to  the  epoch  of  phonetic  writing  and 
literary  records.  Even  differences  of  caste,  including  slav- 
ery did  not  arise  before  the  upper  status  of  barbarism,  i.e., 
before  the  manufacture  of  iron. 

It  may  be  said  categorically  that  even  at  his  worst  Mor- 
gan never  perpetrated  more  palpable  nonsense,  and  that  is 
saying  a  good  deal.  The  African  Negroes,  being  convers- 
ant with  the  iron  technique  but  without  a  phonetic  alphabet, 
would  fall  into  Morgan's  upper  status  of  barbarism ;  and 
no  feature  is  more  constant  among  them  than  a  monarchical 
constitution.  On  the  coast  of  British  Columbia  the  natives 
are  ignorant  of  pottery  and  accordingly  represent  the  upper 
status  of  savagery  in  Morgan's  classification,  yet  this  did 
not  prevent  them  from  recognizing  fixed  castes  of  noble- 
men, commoners  and  slaves.  The  Polynesians,  who  rank 
still  lower  in  his  strange  scheme,  have  been  found  to  possess 
a  corresponding  classification.  As  for  the  alleged  incom- 
patibility of  sibs  with  monarchy  or  aristocracy,  the  North- 
west Coast  Indians  and  many  of  the  Negro  tribes  are  or- 
ganized into  sibs. 


390  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

In  this  connection  still  another  point  merits  notice  as 
bearing  on  the  atomistic  theory  of  primitive  society.  Mor- 
gan assumes  that  all  the  sibs  in  a  tribe  are  on  a  plane  of 
equality.  But  this  is  by  no  means  always  borne  out  by  the 
records.  In  Uganda,  e.g.,  certain  sibs  were  regarded  as  of 
lower  rank  than  the  rest,  others  were  at  least  disqualified 
from  presenting  a  prince  as  a  candidate  for  royalty,  that  is, 
the  sons  of  the  king  by  women  of  these  sibs  were  never 
heirs  to  the  throne.  Such  discriminations  might  perhaps 
be  expected  in  a  powerful  kingdom,  but  they  occur  also 
among  the  generally  democratic  Masai,  where  the  sibs  of  the 
blacksmiths  are  viewed  with  a  strange  abhorrence  and  de- 
barred from  marrying  into  any  other  sibs.  Even  in  the  dis- 
tinctly democratic  areas  of  North  America  some  sibs  take 
precedence  over  others,  as  in  the  Southeast,  and  in  more 
than  one  tribe  the  chieftaincy,  such  as  it  is,  is  confined  to  a 
particular  sib.  In  short,  the  mutual  exclusiveness  of  a  sib 
organization  and  distinctions  of  rank  is  an  untenable  propo- 
sition based  on  a  restricted  range  of  information. 

Tribal  and  Territorial  Organization 

According  to  Morgan's  atomistic  theory,  primitive  society 
differed  fundamentally  from  civilized  society  in  that  it 
lacked  political  organization  founded  upon  territorial  con- 
tiguity. Primitive  trilDes,  he  contended,  deal  with  an  indi- 
vidual as  a  member  of  a  sib,  i.e.,  of  a  kinship  group,  and 
accordingly  through  his  personal  relations ;  the  civilized 
state  deals  with  him  through  his  territorial  relations,  as  a 
member  of  a  township,  county  or  larger  spatial  unit.  This 
political  organization  in  the  narrower  sense  is,  according  to 
Morgan,  a  relatively  recent  development  at  a  very  high  cul- 
tural level.  He  denies  that  it  was  achieved  by  the  Aztec 
of  Mexico  and  his  follower  Cunow  denies  its  existence  in 
ancient  Peru.  Primitive  tribes  might  have  combinations 
of  sibs  into  major  sibs,  they  might  even  organize  confeder- 


GOVERNMENT  391 

acies  of  the  Iroquois  pattern,  yet  the  duties  of  the  individual 
remained  bound  up  with  his  kinship  status.  This  was  the 
original  condition  of  ancient  Greece,  including-  Athens,  until 
Cleisthenes  about  509  B.C.  divided  Attica  into  a  hundred 
demes  or  townships.  Thereafter  every  citizen  was  regis- 
tered as  a  member  of  a  local  unit ;  he  voted  and  was  taxed 
not  as  a  member  of  such  and  such  a  sib  but  of  such  and 
such  a  township;  and  together  with  his  fellow-demotae,  not 
with  his  sib-mates,  he  elected  representative  officials.  Simi- 
lar in  principle  were  the  larger  units,  ten  demes  being  united 
into  a  district,  and  ten  districts  into  the  Athenian  state. 

Sixteen  years  before  Morgan  interwove  the  conceptual 
differentiation  outlined  above  with  his  scheme  of  social  evo- 
lution, Sir  Henry  Maine  had  expressed  similar  views :  "The 
history  of  political  ideas  l^egins  .  .  .  with  the  assumption 
that  kinship  in  blood  is  the  sole  possible  ground  of  com- 
munity in  political  functions,  nor  is  there  any  of  those  sub- 
versions of  feeling  which  we  term  emphatically  revolutions, 
so  startling  and  so  complete  as  the  change  which  is  accom- 
plished when  some  other  principle — such  as  that,  for  in- 
stance of  local  contiguity — established  itself  for  the  first 
time  as  the  basis  of  common  political  action.  It  may  be  af- 
firmed then  of  early  commonwealths  that  their  citizens  con- 
sidered all  the  groups  in  which  they  claimed  membership  to 
he  founded  on  common  lineage."  ® 

The  soundness  of  Maine's  and  Morgan's  position  in 
drawing  a  sharp  distinction  between  kinship  (tribal)  and 
territorial  (political)  organization  is  beyond  cavil.  The 
question  is  to  what  extent  it  is  coterminous  with  the  dis- 
tinction between  rude  and  advanced  cultures.  It  may  at 
once  be  admitted  that  there  are  primitive  tribes  which  con- 
form admirably  to  the  theory  that  kinship  is  the  one  factor 
in  all  governmental  relations.  An  ideal  example  is  fur- 
nished by  the  Ifugao  of  northern  Luzon.  Here  all  the  cus- 
tomary' law  revolves  about  the  kin  group  as  the  pivotal 
unit,  and  there  is  absolutely  no  central  authority  to  render 


392  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

decisions  binding  on  different  kins.  The  group  is  collec- 
tively responsible  to  another  group  for  a  member's  mis- 
deeds; every  member  supports  his  fellow-members  with 
zeal  proportioned  to  his  proximity  in  kinship,  and  there  is 
no  possibility  of  one  kinsman  proceeding  against  another ; 
land  and  articles  of  value  are  held  in  trust  by  individuals 
but  cannot  be  disposed  of  except  with  the  consent  of  the 
family.  And  except  in  so  far  as  an  intangible  public  opin- 
ion is  concerned,  practically  no  bond  unites  the  inhabitants 
of  a  given  territory.  "One  owes  no  obligation  in  the  mat- 
ter of  procedure  to  another  merely  because  he  is  a  co-vil- 
lager or  inhabitant  of  the  same  district."  In  cases  of  dis- 
pute between  groups  there  is  indeed  a  go-between  to  adjust 
the  difficulty  but  he  is  chosen  ad  hoc  and  his  authority  is 
nil. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  Ifugao  unit  is  not  a  sib  but 
a  bilateral  group  but  it  corresponds  sufficiently  well  to  the 
general  concept  of  a  kinship  group  as  the  governmental 
organism.  The  question  is  as  to  the  frequency  of  an  ar- 
rangement that  excludes  the  territorial  factor  in  what  are 
commonly  viewed  as  political  relations.  It  is  certainly  con- 
ceivable that  human  society  even  in  its  ruder  manifestations 
may  as  a  rule  be  more  complex  than  Maine  and  Morgan 
assume,  and  that  it  need  not  be  either  based  on  personal  or 
on  spatial  relations  but  may  rest  on  both.  There  need  not 
even  be  divided  allegiance ;  kinship  may  involve  one  set  of 
obligations,  territorial  relations  another,  very  much  after 
the  fashion  of  our  Church  and  State.  To  be  sure,  the  ab- 
stract possibility  of  a  clash  cannot  be  denied,  but  there  may 
be  such  separation  of  jurisdiction  that  conflicts  are  out  of 
the  normal  course  of  events. 

The  point  to  be  examined  first  of  all,  then,  is  whether 
in  a  fair  number  of  instances  there  is  a  territorial  grouping 
of  individuals  over  and  above  any  coexisting  kinship  clas- 
sification. A  recapitulation  of  facts  already  cited  in  other 
connections  suffices  to  yield  an  affirmative  answer  but  some 


GOVERNMENT  393 

discrimination  must  be  exercised.  In  Australia  Kariera 
groups  are  each  indissolubly  linked  with  a  definite  locality 
by  mystical  ties,  and  it  is  the  local  group  that  wages  war 
against  other  local  groups  of  the  same  tribe.  But  we  should 
not  be  justified  in  holding  this  up  as  an  example  of  a  terri- 
torial organization  because  the  fellow-inhabitants  and  co- 
owners  of  a  tract  are  kinsmen  in  the  paternal  line.  Hence 
their  cohesion  can  be  plausibly  explained  as  the  result  of 
consanguinity  rather  than  of  spatial  contiguity.  But  in 
Australia  there  are  regions  where  whole  tribes  are  as  closely 
united  with  their  habitat  as  the  Kariera  sibs  are  with  their 
respective  localities,  where  such  a  thing,  e.g.,  as  divesting  a 
defeated  tribe  of  its  ancestral  land  is  not  even  conceived 
as  a  possibility.  Here,  accordingly,  the  entire  tribe,  uniting 
many  kin  groups,  functions  as  a  territorial  unit,  as  among 
the  Arunta  and  their  congeners.  It  is,  however,  the  Dieri 
who  present  the  most  favorable  case.  Here  descent  is 
matrilineal,  but  marriage  is  patrilocal,  consequently  the  men 
united  in  one  locality  are  not  members  of  the  same  totem 
sib.  While  each  sib  has  a  headman,  to  wit,  the  oldest  male 
totemite,  the  local  group  also  has  a  headman  who  may  or 
may  not  be  likewise  the  head  of  a  totem  group.  The  rank- 
ing totemite  will  not  hold  the  office  of  headman  in  the 
locality  unless  he  exhibits  special  merit.  Here,  then,  the 
territorial  unit  coexists  with  and  is  independent  of  the  kin- 
ship unit.  Further,  it  has  been  shown  that  among  the  Dieri 
there  is  what  the  Kariera  completely  lack,  a  paramount  head 
of  the  entire  tribe,  embracing  under  his  leadership  all  the 
people  encamped  on  Dieri  territory. 

As  an  instance  in  some  respects  parallel  to  the  Dieri  illus- 
tration may  l)e  cited  the  disparity  between  the  Melanesian 
rules  of  descent  and  of  political  organization.  The  patri- 
local natives  of  Buin  derive  their  sib  affiliation  from  their 
mothers,  so  that  the  settlement  embraces  members  of  va- 
rious maternal  kin  groups.  But  from  a  governmental  point 
of  view  it  is  the  territorial  group  that  is  of  importance, 


394  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

e.g.,  in  warlike  undertakings ;  and,  significantly  enough,  the 
office  of  chief  descends  not  in  the  sib  but  from  father  to 
son,  i.e.,  within  the  territorial  unit  as  fixed  by  the  rule  of 
residence. 

Extreme  jealousy  regarding  territorial  rights  has  been 
noted  as  characteristic  of  various  tribes,  some  of  them  in  a 
very  rude  state  of  culture,  such  as  the  Vedda,  the  Maidu, 
Shasta,  and  Thompson  River  Indians,  and  it  occurs  on  a 
higher  level  among  the  Samoans.  In  each  of  these  cases  the 
local  group  exists  as  a  unit  independently  of  kinship  bonds. 
Similarly,  among  the  Maritime  Chukchi  the  village  "is 
founded,  not  on  family  connection,  but  on  territorial  con- 
tiguity," and  it  is  the  village  as  well  as  the  kinship  group 
that  functions  in  the  blood- feud.  Even  when  the  sentiment 
for  a  definite  stretch  of  territory  is  far  vaguer  than  in  any 
of  the  instances  hitherto  cited,  the  geographical  location 
may  exert  an  influence  on  political  status.  The  two  main 
bands  of  the  Crow  spoke  the  same  language,  intermingled 
freely  and  included  members  of  the  same  sibs,  but  when  a 
man  had  settled  in  one  division  his  lot  was  for  certain  pur- 
poses cast  with  that  group,  irrespective  of  any  other  affil- 
iations. 

The  point  here  is  not  to  ascertain  whether  the  kinship  or 
tlie  local  group  is  more  fundamental  in  its  influence  on 
life;  or  whether  the  latter  is  merely  a  derivative  of  the 
former.  What  matters  is  that  even  in  very  humble  cultural 
levels  local  contiguity  is  one  of  the  factors  determining  so- 
cial solidarity  independently  of  blood-relationship.  Now  I 
have  designated  as  associations  those  social  units  not  based 
on  kinship,  and  the  territorial  group  may  veritably  be  con- 
ceived as  a  specialized  form  of  association.  Its  members, 
or  many  of  them,  are  in  some  instances  more  passive  than 
in  clubs  or  secret  societies,  but  they  are  none  the  less  united 
by  community  of  interest. 

It  is  indeed  one  of  Schurtz's  most  signal  services  to  have 
explained  the  early  origin  of  political  society  in  Morgan's 


GOVERNMENT  395 

sense  without  recourse  to  any  deliberate  legal  enactment.  A 
Buin  chief  who  erects  a  council-house  and  gathers  about 
him  the  men  of  his  settlement  in  a  men's  club,  is  in  so  far 
forth  disrupting  the  ties  of  the  family  or  sib,  or  rather  is 
creating  a  new  bond  which  by  its  very  existence  restricts 
the  dominion  of  the  kinship  motive.  The  nature  of  that 
bond  is  territorial  since  it  unites  men  of  the  same  locality 
and  of  different  lineage;  and  it  is  invested  with  political 
significance  as  soon  as  the  assemblage  of  fellow-villagers 
no  longer  contents  itself  with  common  festivities  but  under- 
takes joint  expeditions  against  a  neighboring  encampment. 
As  already  hinted,  it  is  not  necessary  that  all  inmates  of  the 
settlement  should  actively  participate  in  the  association. 
The  women,  of  course,  are  often  excluded,  and  under  the 
Australian  gerontocracy  solely  a  few  elders  or  at  best  the 
age-class  of  elders  act  as  the  managing  board.  Neverthe- 
less the  women  and  the  younger  men  of  the  district,  though 
submissive  spectators,  are  associated  with  their  elders  in  a 
manner  altogether  different  from  possible  relations  with  the 
elders  of  another  locality  and  in  so  far  forth  are  members, 
though  impotent  ones,  of  a  territorial  association.  The 
same  would,  of  course,  apply  to  the  conditions  effected  by 
the  secret  Ogboni  of  Yorubaland.  That  is  to  say,  the  sev- 
eral types  of  associations  discussed  by  Schurtz  are  poten- 
tial agencies  for  the  creation  of  a  state  by  uniting  the  popu- 
lation within  a  circumscribed  area  into  an  aggregate  that 
functions  as  a  definite  unit  irrespective  of  any  other  social 
affiliations  of  the  inhabitants.  When,  therefore,  a  philo- 
sophically minded  historian,  Professor  Teggart,  complains 
that  Maine  and  Morgan  have  defined  the  difference  between 
kindred  and  political  organization  without  clearing  up  the 
transitional  processes,  his  complaint  is  warranted  against 
these  students,  but  it  leaves  out  of  account  Schurtz's  mem- 
orable contribution.  Even  at  a  very  early  time  and  in  a 
very  lowly  environment  there  was  no  necessity  for  disrupt- 
ing the  ties  of  kinship  in  order  to  found  a  political  state. 


396  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

For  concomitantly  with  the  family  and  the  sib  there  have 
existed  for  untold  centuries  such  associations  as  the  men's 
clubs,  age-classes  and  secret  organizations,  all  of  them  inde- 
pendent of  kinship,  moving  as  it  were  in  a  quite  different 
sphere  from  the  kindred  groups,  and  all  of  them  capable  of 
readily  acquiring  political  character  if  not  invested  with  it 
from  their  inception/ 

References 

*  Hewitt :  295-326,  especially  297  seq.,  320  seq.  Spencer 
and  Gillen,  1904:   20-30.     Roth,  1906:    5  seq. 

^Rivers,  1914  (b)  :  11,409.  Tregear :  123,  150,  192.  Stair: 
65-91,  128.  Erdland:  99-113.  Waitz  and  Gerland :  165-222, 
343  seq. 

^  Thurnwald,  1912:  314-326;  id.,  1910:  9-15.  Keysser: 
100.     Zahn :    308. 

*  Junod :  1,  355-409.  Ferguson:  197  seq.  Spieth :  98-110. 
Ellis,  A.  B.:  161-181.  Torday  and  Joyce :  53  seq.  Frobenius: 
172  seq.     Merker :    18. 

''Krause:  122.  Boas,  1916  (a):  429,  496.  Jesuit  Rela- 
tions: II,  73.  Adair:  428.  Fletcher  and  La  Flesche:  206. 
Lewie,  1912:  228;  id.,  1913:  274.  Kroeber,  1917  (b)  :  396. 
Morgan,  1877:  Pt.  11,  Chap.  5.    Goldenweiser,  1912:  468. 

^  Morgan,  1877:  Pt.  11,  Chaps.  2,  8,  10.     Maine:  Chap.  v. 

'Brown:  144.  Spencer  and  Gillen,  1904:  13.  Hewitt: 
47.    Begeras :  50,  628,  668.     Lowie,  1912:    245. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

JUSTICE 

PRIMITIVE  administration  of  justice  furnishes  espe- 
cially illuminating  examples  of  the  relation  of  the 
kinship  factor  to  motives  of  another  character.  Given  the 
complete  absence  of  central  authority  as  among  the  Ifugao, 
the  kinship  group  becomes  the  judicial  body — one  that  con- 
fronts all  like  bodies  in  the  tribe  as  one  sovereign  state  con- 
fronts the  rest.  But  that  is  an  extreme  case ;  far  more  com- 
monly there  is  a  central  power  that  intervenes — not  to  be 
sure  in  all  cases  that  would  demand  governmental  inter- 
ference with  us,  but  in  those  circumstances  which  from  the 
native  point  of  view  are  of  collective  interest. 

In  this  connection  reference  may  be  made  to  Maine's 
comparison  of  rude  and  mature  jurisprudence.  The  for- 
mer, he  points  out,  is  marked  by  a  strange  preponderance 
of  criminal  over  civil  law;  "the  more  archaic  the  code,  the 
fuller  and  minuter  is  its  penal  legislation."  This  had  been 
explained  by  earlier  writers  as  due  to  the  supposed  turbu- 
lence of  barbarian  life.  With  his  usual  acumen  Maine  does 
not  rest  content  with  this  facile  interpretation,  but  shows 
that  the  disproportionately  small  body  of  civil  law  in  an- 
cient times  is  due  to  the  fact  that  there  was  little  occasion 
for  that  part  of  jurisprudence  to  come  into  being  under 
archaic  conditions.  The  regulation  of  personal  relations  by 
the  status  of  the  individuals,  the  administration  and  inherit- 
ance of  property  w'ithin  the  family  according  to  customary 
law,  and  the  absence  of  contracts  between  individuals  ade- 
quately account  for  the  diminutive  part  played  by  civil  juris- 

397 


398  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

prudence  as  compared  with  penal  law  "even  if  it  be  hazard- 
ous to  pronounce  that  the  childhood  of  nations  is  always  a 
period  of  ungoverned  violence." 

The  last  remark  is  emphatically  an  understatement  of  the 
case.  It  cannot  be  too  often  explained  that  the  extreme  in- 
dividualism often  found  in  primitive  communities  is  very 
far  from  favoring  universal  anarchy  or  anything  approach- 
ing it.  Generally  speaking,  the  unwritten  laws  of  customary 
usage  are  obeyed  far  more  willingly  than  our  written  codes, 
or  rather  they  are  obeyed  spontaneously.  Among  the  Crow 
personal  brawls  are  looked  upon  with  contempt,  and  a  man 
will  not  readily  imperil  his  social  position  and  invite  the 
public  derision  of  his  joking-relatives  by  engaging  in  fisti- 
cuffs with  a  fellow-tribesman.  To  become  the  laughing- 
stock of  his  daily  associates  for  minor  misdemeanors  and 
to  be  completely  ostracized  for  graver  offenses  are  terrific 
punishments  for  the  native  and  they  have  a  deterrent  force 
of  which  the  infliction  of  penalties  in  our  sense  is  often 
quite  devoid.  To  this  should  be  added  the  religious  motive. 
Certain  crimes  are  reckoned  as  sins,  they  are  offenses 
against  the  unseen  powers  of  the  universe  and  invite  con- 
dign punishment  regardless  of  any  secular  agency.  That, 
e.g.,  was  the  conception  underlying  Polynesian  observance 
of  the  taboo  rules.  In  short,  even  in  the  more  individualis- 
tic societies  of  the  ruder  peoples  there  are  adequate  motives 
for  the  maintenance  of  order,  though  the  conception  of 
order  will  naturally  vary  in  different  places  and  will  some- 
times differ  widely  from  ours. 

After  accounting  for  the  predominance  of  criminal  law 
in  early  society,  Maine  qualifies  his  conception  by  pointing 
out  that  at  bottom  "the  penal  law  of  ancient  communities  is 
not  the  law  of  Crimes ;  it  is  the  law  of  Wrongs,  or,  to  use 
the  English  technical  word,  of  Torts."  This  brings  us  to 
the  very  core  of  our  problem,  for  what  Maine  means  is  that 
in  archaic  jurisprudence  it  is  not  the  state  that  is  regarded 
as  the  aggrieved  party  but  the  individual  sufferer  and  his 


JUSTICE  399 

kindred.  In  other  words,  this  is  the  old  question  of  personal 
versus  territorial  relations.  I  have  already  indicated  that 
in  the  generality  of  instances  primitive  man  recognizes  both 
torts  and  crimes,  but  before  adducing  some  of  the  evidence 
I  must  refer  to  certain  widespread  principles  of  primitive 
law.  These  may  be  dispatched  with  great  brevity  in  view 
of  Professor  Hobhouse's  lucid  exposition  in  a  generally 
available  work.^ 

Collective  Responsibility 

Given  the  conception  that  the  individual  is  merged  in  his 
group,  it  follows  logically  that  his  fellow-members  are 
collectively  responsible  for  his  misdeeds.  Though  this  is 
an  archaic  notion,  it  persists  to  the  present  day  in  the  war- 
fare of  civilized  nations,  which  summarily  shelves  the  prac- 
tice of  determining  individual  guilt  or  innocence.  It  should 
be  noted  that  the  facts  coming  under  this  head  cannot  be 
perverted  into  evidence  in  support  of  the  sib  dogma,  because 
the  group  concerned  is  frequently  not  the  sib  but  the  fam- 
ily, the  association,  or  the  tribe.  The  sibless  Hupa  were 
content  to  kill  any  member  of  a  murderer's  family  in  order 
to  punish  the  crime;  among  the  Crow  if  a  Fox  had  dis- 
graced himself  and  his  society  by  taking  back  an  abducted 
wife,  the  rival  Lump  woods  had  the  right  to  cut  up  the  blan- 
kets of  all  the  Foxes;  and  in  the  same  tribe  the  grief  of 
parents  mourning  the  death  of  a  son  slain  by  the  Dakota 
was  at  once  assuaged  when  vengeance  had  been  wreaked  on 
any  member  of  the  hostile  people. 

As  a  corollary  from  this  principle,  an  offense  of  one 
group  against  another  resembles  an  encroachment  of  one 
state  on  another's  sovereignty;  on  the  other  hand,  a  crime 
committed  by  one  individual  against  a  fellow-member  con- 
cerns no  one  outside  their  group.  This  latter  point  is  con- 
stantly demonstrated  in  Ifugao  practice.  Thus,  two  cases 
of  parricide  went  unpunished  because  as  internal   family 


400  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

affairs  they  were  nobody  else's  business  and  the  kindred 
concerned  regarded  the  murder  as  justified  since  the  old 
man  had  wrongfully  pawned  his  son's  field  and  thereby  im- 
periled his  family's  livelihood.  These  people  do  not  pro- 
ceed against  a  fellow-member  even  for  more  heinous  of- 
fenses. Thus,  if  a  father  had  incestuous  relations  with  his 
daughter,  he  might  be  punished  by  the  girl's  mother's  family 
on  the  ground  that  he  had  committed  a  crime  against  them, 
but  his  own  kin  would  take  no  measures  against  him. 

From  the  supreme  law  of  group  solidarity  it  follows  that 
when  an  individual  has  injured  a  member  of  another  group, 
his  own  group  shield  him  while  the  opposing  group  support 
the  injured  man's  claims  for  compensation  or  revenge. 
Thence  there  may  develop  blood-feuds  and  civil  wars.  The 
stubbornness  with  which  these  are  waged  varies  in  different 
regions.  The  Chukchi  generally  make  peace  after  the  first 
act  of  retribution,  but  among  the  Ifugao  the  struggle  may 
go  on  almost  interminably  till  at  last  an  inter-marriage  re- 
establishes friendly  intercourse.  An  interesting  example 
of  how  different  practices  may  spring  from  the  same  prin- 
ciple is  furnished  by  the  two  tribes  mentioned.  While  the 
Ifugao  tend  to  protect  a  kinsman  under  almost  all  circum- 
stances, the  Chukchi  often  avert  a  feud  by  killing  a  mem- 
ber of  the  family  whose  spitefulness  is  likely  to  embroil 
them  with  other  kins. 

A  strange  variant  of  the  underlying  theory  occurs  among 
the  Australian  Dieri,  who  deliberately  inflict  the  death  pen- 
alty on  the  criminal's  elder  brother  rather  than  on  the  of- 
fender himself. 

Criminal  Motive 

As  might  be  inferred  from  the  satisfaction  of  justice  by 
the  punishment  of  any  member  of  the  offender's  group, 
criminal  intent  plays  not  nearly  the  same  part  in  primitive 
law  as  it  does  in  our  own  jurisprudence.     A  Hupa  incident 


JUSTICE  401 

narrated  by  Goddard  serves  as  a  classical  example.  "A 
child  was  burned  to  death  in  a  fire  a  woman  had  built  for 
heating  wash-water  out  of  doors.  Although  the  woman 
was  in  no  way  at  fault,  the  life  of  her  son  was  sought  as  a 
recompense."  Yet  this  must  not  be  regarded  as  a  univer- 
sally recognized  postulate.  The  Ifugao  are  especially  re- 
markable for  the  care  with  which  they  discriminate  between 
voluntary  and  involuntary  deeds,  and  between  those  purely 
accidental  and  those  resulting  from  carelessness.  If  a  man's 
knife  flies  out  of  his  hand  and  puts  out  another's  eye,  no 
damages  are  demanded.  In  the  scrimmage  over  sacrificed 
carabaos  many  men  are  injured  and  some  are  killed,  yet 
even  in  the  latter  event  no  payment  is  assessed  by  the  kin. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  man  killing  a  child  running  in  the  way 
while  throwing  spears  at  a  target  must  pay  half  the  fine 
for  manslaughter  because  he  has  not  taken  adequate  pre- 
cautions ;  and  an  even  heavier  fine  is  imposed  on  a  man  who 
slays  a  neighbor  whom  he  mistakes  for  an  enemy,  since  the 
intent  to  kill  is  held  to  aggravate  the  charge  of  carelessness. 
There  is  one  notable  exception  to  the  general  Ifugao  rule : 
at  sumptuous  feasts  the  host  and  the  officiating  priest  are 
jointly  held  responsible  for  any  accidents  that  may  happen 
— the  host  because  if  he  had  not  given  the  feast  there  would 
have  been  no  brawl ;  the  priest  because  of  his  inferred  re- 
missness in  the  execution  of  religious  functions.  The 
Southeastern  Bantu  draw  a  highly  interesting  distinction 
between  accidental  manslaughter  and  accidental  injury  to 
property.  All  homicide  is  criminal  since  it  deprives  the 
ruler  of  a  subject  and  must  be  atoned  by  a  compensation 
paid  to  the  chief  irrespective  of  criminal  intent.  But  in- 
jury to  another  man's  fields  or  other  possessions  is  a  tort, 
and  if  the  harm  is  done  without  premeditation  no  indemni- 
ties are  paid. 

These  three  examples  illustrate  the  danger  of  premature 
generalization,  but  after  all  qualifications  are  made  it  re- 
mains true  that  the  ethical  motive  of  an  act  is  more  fre- 


402  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

quently  regarded  as  irrelevant  in  the  ruder  cultures  than 
in  our  courts  of  justice. 

Weregild 

Feuds  between  the  offender's  and  the  sufferer's  group 
are  often  averted  by  composition,  that  is,  by  the  payment  of 
weregild  in  compensation  for  the  injury  sustained.  In 
many  cases  there  is  a  traditional  tariff  schedule  defining  the 
payment  to  be  made  for  any  and  all  possible  injuries.  It  is 
important  to  remember,  however,  that  societies  differ  as  to 
the  range  of  offenses  for  which  payment  may  be  accepted. 
The  Ifugao  have  a  complicated  scheme  of  fines  for  the  ad- 
justment of  all  sorts  of  difficulties,  but  wilful  murder  can 
be  expiated  only  by  blood.  Less  rigorous  is  the  practice  of 
the  Chukchi,  nevertheless  they  are  far  more  likely  to  accept 
weregild  in  lieu  of  inflicting  personal  chastisement  for 
minor  transgressions  than  in  cases  of  murder.  But  in 
many  regions  even  felonies  are  compounded  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  public  peace.  A  iew  concrete  illustrations 
will  serve  to  render  the  spirit  of  the  conventional  tariffs 
clearer. 

Ifugao  customary  law  recognizes  a  three-class  division  of 
society  on  the  basis  of  wealth,  fines  varying  with  the  finan- 
cial status  of  the  parties  concerned.  Thus,  for  adultery 
after  the  second  marriage  ceremony  but  before  the  final 
one  the  wealthy  man  pays  a  fine  of  ten  articles  estimated  in 
value  at  47  pesos;  a  middle-class  individual  an  equal  num- 
ber appraised  at  only  24.20  pesos ;  and  a  poor  man  only  six 
articles  worth  altogether  about  12  pesos.  For  those  cases 
of  homicide  which  do  not  require  a  shedding  of  blood  in 
return  the  rich  slayer  must  provide  elaborate  feasts  and 
supply  a  variety  of  articles  to  be  distributed  among  the  dead 
man's  heirs,  the  total  expense  sometimes  running  up  to  975 
])esos.  This,  however,  depends  somewhat  on  the  rank  of 
the  slain  individual  and  would  l^e  rather  less  if  he  were  a 


JUSTICE  403 

member  of  the  middle-class,  let  alone,  of  the  caste  of  the 
poverty-stricken.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  slayer  were  of 
the  two  lower  grades,  his  fine  would  not  be  materially  com- 
muted; he  would  be  saddled  with  it  for  the  remainder  of  his 
life  and  his  children  would  have  to  pay  the  balance  after 
his  decease. 

The  ancient  Kirgiz  likewise  recognized  class  distinctions 
in  the  imposition  of  fines.  For  a  freeman's  death  the  slayer 
was  mulcted  one  kun,  i.e.,  100  horses  or  1,000  sheep,  but 
a  nobleman's  kindred  were  entitled  to  a  sevenfold  amount, 
while  composition  for  a  woman  or  slave  was  effected  with 
half  a  kun  plus  nine  head  of  sundry  domesticated  animals, 
and  a  third  of  a  kun  paid  for  a  child.  For  the  loss  of  an 
eye  or  of  the  right  arm  a  man  claimed  half  a  kun,  a  woman 
one-fourth  of  a  ktin.  A  broken  upper  arm,  the  loss  of  the 
left  hand  or  of  one  foot  are  each  compensated  with  three 
times  nine  head  oif  cattle,  for  a  broken  thumb  nine  head 
are  paid.  In  case  of  a  broken  tooth  or  finger  or  a  wound 
in  the  head  the  sufferer  receives  from  the  culprit  one  horse 
and  a  coat.  Theft  is  punished  with  a  fine  of  three  times 
nine  head,  one  camel  being  reckoned  equivalent  to  three 
horses  or  thirty  sheep.  If  an  enceinte  woman  is  knocked 
down  and  in  consequence  bears  a  still-born  child,  the  as- 
saulter must  pay  a  horse  for  each  month  if  the  mother  is  in 
her  fifth  month,  but  if  she  has  been  pregnant  for  a  longer 
period  a  camel  has  to  be  paid  for  each  month. 

These  regulations  are  evidently  very  circumstantial  but 
in  many  cases  the  principle  of  composition  was  acknowl- 
edged without  fixed  stipulation  as  to  the  amount  to  be  paid. 
Thus,  among  the  Plains  Indians  a  varying  number  of  horses 
seem  to  have  been  presented  to  a  slain  man's  kin,  and  other 
offenses  were  blotted  out  by  equally  undefined  offerings  of 
gifts.  A  curious  substitute  for  compensation  was  fairly 
popular  in  this  region.  Instead  of  awaiting  weregild  or 
forcibly  seizing  some  of  the  culprit's  belongings,  the  in- 
jured individual  might  destroy  one  or  more  of  his  enemy's 


404  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

horses,   or  other  valuables.     This  practice  was  especially 
common  in  cases  of  adultery. 

The  Shasta  methods  of  adjustment  depart  to  some  ex- 
tent from  the  norm.  Blood-money  must  always  be  accepted 
if  offered,  but  if  revenge  is  taken  previously  on  any  one  but 
the  actual  murderer  the  regular  compensation  must  be  of- 
fered to  the  kin  of  the  second  person  slain,  so  that  their 
liability  for  the  first  killing  is  largely  or  wholly  wiped  out. 
Adjustment  is  very  simple  in  this  tribe  because  every  indi- 
vidual has  a  fixed  value  determined  by  the  bride-price  paid 
for  his  mother  in  marriage.  Perhaps  the  most  curious  fea- 
ture among  these  people  is  the  part  played  by  the  chief,  who 
not  merely  tries  to  effect  an  agreement  between  contending 
parties,  but  advances  or  pays  outright  the  requisite  property 
if  the  aggressor  proves  insolvent. 

Finally  may  be  cited  the  Samoan  treatment  of  murder 
and  adultery.  Frequently  the  criminal  would  not  only  ten- 
der valuable  mats  and  other  property  but  would  eat  humble- 
pie  by  bringing  likewise  firewood,  stones  and  leaves  to  the 
wronged  party,  thus  symbolically  indicating  that  they  might 
kill,  cook,  and  eat  him,  and  thereby  thrust  himself  upon 
their  generosity.  Generally  this  combination  of  gifts  and 
self-degradation  did  not  fail  to  conciliate  the  wrath  of  the 
aggrieved.  The  low-born  did  not  undergo  this  symbolical 
self-mortification  but  merely  offered  payment,  which,  how- 
ever, might  be  declined. 

Evidence 

As  Professor  Hobhouse  has  pointed  out,  archaic  pro- 
cedure frequently  revolves  not  so  much  about  the  exact  de- 
termination of  guilt  or  innocence  as  about  the  prevention 
of  internecine  strife.  Nevertheless  even  in  the  ruder  cul- 
tures methods  are  employed  to  ascertain  the  truth  of  an  ac- 
cusation or  the  merit  of  a  dispute,  but  usually  the  means 
used  are  shot  through  with  the  magico-religious  notions 


JUSTICE  405 

prevalent  among  the  people.  Under  this  head  two  sets  of 
usages  demand  attention,  oaths  and  ordeals. 

Among  the  Plains  Indians  oaths  were  sworn  primarily 
to  establish  a  disputed  title  to  war  honors.  Thus,  it  hap- 
pened among  the  Crow  that  two  men  laid  a  claim  to  having 
first  touched  the  prostrate  body  of  an  enemy.  In  that  case 
solemn  oaths  were  recited  before  an  assemblage  of  war- 
riors. Two  methods  were  popular.  One  was  for  each  of 
the  litigants  in  turn  to  take  a  knife,  put  it  in  his  mouth, 
point  it  at  the  sun,  and  recite  a  formula  calling  upon  the 
sun  as  a  witness  and  invoking  death  on  the  false  claimant. 
In  the  other  case  an  arrow  piercing  a  slice  of  meat  was 
laid  on  a  dry  buffalo  skull,  then  each  contestant  would  raise 
the  arrow,  taste  of  the  meat,  and  recite  a  similar  formula. 
Of  course  no  immediate  decision  could  be  rendered;  but  if 
either  of  the  rivals  soon  after  met  with  a  serious  accident 
or  was  afflicted  in  some  other  manner,  the  judgment  of  the 
tribe  was  that  he  had  perjured  himself  and  that  the  other 
man  was  entitled  to  the  disputed  distinction.  In  other 
parts  of  the  world  the  oath  is  administered  for  the  general 
purpose  of  determining  guilt.  The  Samoyed  or  Ostyak 
defendant  is  made  to  swear  over  a  bear's  nose.  While  cut- 
ting it  up  with  a  knife,  he  declares,  "May  the  bear  devour 
me  if  I  commit  perjury!"  There  is  a  general  belief  that 
the  perjuror  will  be  punished,  hence  any  one  undergoing 
the  oath  is  held  innocent.  But  if  he  should  subsequently  be 
killed  by  a  bear  or  perish  in  an  accident,  this  is  attributed 
to  his  having  perjured  himself.  The  Kirgiz  have  the  curi- 
ous rule  of  not  having  the  defendant  take  the  oath  but  some 
other  man  of  known  probity  who  thereby  assumes  the  crim- 
inal's sin.  On  the  whole,  oaths  are  eminently  characteristic 
of  the  Old  World,  though  as  pointed  out  they  are  by  no 
means  lacking  in  a  restricted  manner  among  the  natives 
of  America. 

The  ordeal  is  likewise  an  Old  World  institution.  It  as- 
sumes Protean  forms.    Among  the  Chukchi  differences  are 


4o6  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

sometimes  settled  by  a  wrestling-match,  there  being  a  firm 
conviction  that  a  wronged  man  will  be  victorious.  The 
same  means  is  used  by  the  Ifugao  to  ascertain  disputed  rice- 
field  boundaries,  while  various  methods  serve  in  other  forms 
of  litigation.  Thus,  in  cases  of  adultery  the  adversaries 
hurl  eggs  at  each  other,  while  in  settling  other  disagree- 
ments each  litigant  slowly  thrusts  his  hand  into  a  pot  of 
boiling  hot  water  to  extract  a  pebble,  undue  haste  or  a  severe 
scalding  being  interpreted  as  a  sign  of  guilt.  Additional 
illustrations  will  be  cited  below  in  dealing  with  the  African 
data. 

Magico-religious  means  are  of  course  employed  in  a  va- 
riety of  ways  to  determine  guilt,  but  without  necessarily 
possessing  juridical  character.  Thus,  when  an  Ifugao  di- 
vines a  thief  by  balancing  an  egg  on  a  spear  blade,  the  tgg 
standing  on  end  at  the  mention  of  the  culprit,  the  intellectual 
process  may  be  of  the  same  order  as  that  characterizing  the 
ordeal,  but  legally  the  two  phenomena  are  distinct.  The 
divinatory  act  has  purely  personal  significance.  It  merely 
encourages  the  robbed  person  to  challenge  the  suspected 
criminal  to  a  trial  that  has  juridical  standing.^ 

Having  now  rapidly  touched  upon  some  of  the  features 
particularly  characteristic  of  primitive  jurisprudence,  we 
had  better  examine  connectedly  the  juridical  culture  of  sev- 
eral selected  peoples,  mainly  though  not  wholly  in  order  to 
ascertain  to  what  extent  society  takes  note  of  transgressions 
of  customary  law. 

Australia 

The  Australians  furnish  an  admirable  example  of  peo- 
ple very  low  in  the  scale  of  material  advancement  yet 
with  a  definite  central  authority  for  dealing  with  crime.  It 
is  true  that  some  deeds  ranking  as  felonious  in  our  law  are 
not  regarded  as  falling  within  the  jurisdiction  of  anyone 
beyond  the  family  circle  immediately  involved.     A  Queens- 


JUSTICE  407 

lander  may  maim  or  even  kill  his  wife  so  far  as  the  tribe 
is  concerned,  though  in  the  latter  case  her  kindred  may  call 
him  to  account;  and  a  mother  may  lawfully  kill  her  child 
within  a  few  hours  after  birth.  It  is  also  true  that  even  for 
certain  transgressions  of  the  native  code  the  punishment  is 
none  other  than  general  ridicule  and  reprobation,  though 
this  is  often  felt  far  more  keenly  in  primitive  communities 
than  one  would  imagine.  Finally,  other  misdeeds  are  be- 
lieved to  be  punished  automatically  by  magical  means ;  thus, 
a  man's  hair  will  turn  prematurely  gray  if  he  speaks  to  his 
wife's  mother.  But  when  all  deductions  are  made,  there 
remains  a  group  of  offenses  which  are  neither  settled  by 
private  arrangement  nor  allowed  to  meet  with  mere  mock- 
ery or  impersonal  punishment  but  where  the  state  in  the 
form  of  the  tribal  council  intervenes. 

Let  us  first  consider  typical  instances  of  the  private  ad- 
ministration of  justice.  As  already  indicated,  a  Queens- 
lander  has  almost  complete  control  over  his  wife,  and  for 
infidelity  he  may  strike  her  with  a  boomerang,  spear  her  in 
the  thigh,  or  heap  hot  ashes  upon  her  stomach.  Similarly, 
a  father  may  chastise  an  uninitiated  son  in  any  way  he 
chooses  without  being  in  the  slightest  degree  amenable  to 
outside  interference.  In  cases  of  trespass  on  individually 
owned  patches  of  land  the  proprietor  may  merely  vituperate 
the  poacher  or  he  may  spear  him  in  the  leg  provided  he  is 
of  the  same  tribe,  but  an  alien  is  liable  to  be  killed. 

Since  collective  responsibility  is  recognized,  the  murder 
of  a  man  may  lead  to  a  vendetta,  but  by  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable of  aboriginal  institutions  this  is  often  averted 
through  the  substitution  of  a  legalized  encounter  in  which 
the  criminal,  armed  with  a  shield,  confronts  the  kin  or  local 
group  of  the  slain.  These  hurl  spears  at  him,  which  he 
parries  as  best  he  can,  until  his  blood  flows,  which  normally 
closes  the  proceedings  and  puts  an  end  to  all  hostility. 
These  expiatory  combats  have  been  styled  ordeals  but  they 
are  obviously  nothing  of  the  sort,  since  they  do  not  deter- 


4o8  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

mine  the  defendant's  guilt,  which  is  assumed  from  the 
start.  Such  combats  also  take  place  in  the  case  of  lesser 
offenses,  and  then  the  defendant  may  be  actively  aided  by 
some  of  his  kinsmen  and  permitted  not  only  to  protect  him- 
self but  to  throw  missiles  at  his  opponents.  Formal  ex- 
piation is  in  vogue  for  various  misdeeds  but  seems  to  have 
a  restricted  range  of  distribution.  It  is  very  popular  in  the 
Southeast  and  also  in  Queensland,  where  a  thief  will  ex- 
press contrition  and  offer  his  head  for  a  blow,  while  a  gos- 
sip will  allow  his  mouth  to  be  struck  by  the  slandered  per- 
son. In  Central  Australia  atonement  of  this  type  does  not 
seem  to  be  customary  to  the  same  extent,  though  after  an 
elopement  the  abductor  may  have  to  submit  to  maltreatment 
by  the  offended  husband  so  as  to  prevent  a  fight  between 
the  members  of  the  local  groups  concerned.  In  this  region 
a  death  ascribed  to  evil  magic  is  avenged  by  an  organized 
party  dispatched  by  the  tribal  council. 

There  is  doubtless  some  local  variation  in  the  conception 
of  what  constitutes  a  crime  against  society  but  throughout 
the  continent  a  breach  of  the  incest  laws  would  fall  under 
this  head.  Thus,  at  a  tribal  council  of  the  Dieri  a  young 
man  was  charged  with  mating  within  the  forbidden  degrees. 
The  elders  examined  the  matter,  sustained  the  accusation, 
and  almost  killed  the  convict,  who  escaped  death  only 
through  the  appeal  made  by  an  influential  tribesman  that  he 
was  an  imbecile.  Very  different  was  the  adjustment  of, 
say,  an  elopement  of  a  girl  promised  in  marriage  with  an- 
other man.  This  was  a  matter  for  her  kin  to  deal  with. 
The  aggrieved  brothers  would  engage  in  a  fight  with  the 
abductor  until  blood  flowed,  and  the  girl  was  severely 
beaten  by  her  mother  and  sisters.  But  so  long  as  the  elop- 
ers stood  to  each  other  in  the  potential  relationship  of  mates 
as  recognized  by  the  tribe,  this  act  fell  without  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  elders'  senate. 

Other  crimes  generally  penalized  by  this  governing  body 
are  divulgence  of  the  secrets  revealed  at  initiation  and  mur- 


JUSTICE  409 

der  by  evil  magic.  Regarding  other  forms  of  homicide 
usage  probably  varied  locally.  In  northern  Queensland  the 
settlement  of  ordinary  disputes  was  a  personal  matter,  but 
any  serious  injury  to  a  member  of  the  local  group  was 
avenged  by  the  tribal  council  unless  the  assault  was  consid- 
ered justified  by  some  flagrant  provocation. 

To  sum  up,  Australian  does  not  differ  from  advanced 
jurisprudence  in  an  exclusive  recognition  of  torts  but  in 
regarding  certain  misdeeds  as  torts  which  we  consider 
crimes,  reserving  for  the  latter  category  a  relatively  small 
number  of  transgressions.^ 

Ifugao 

Ifugao  law  presents  an  extraordinary  combination  of 
traits.  A  society  could  hardly  exist  where  the  separatist 
tendencies  of  distinct  kins  have  been  carried  to  a  greater 
extent  than  among  these  natives  of  Luzon.  The  individual 
owes  allegiance  to  the  kin  and  the  kin  owes  protection  to  its 
members  against  other  kins ;  no  obligation  devolves  on  either 
in  a  matter  concerning  other  kins  of  the  same  village  or  dis- 
trict; and  there  is  accordingly  no  functionary  acting  as 
arbitrator  by  virtue  of  any  authority  vested  in  him.  When 
kins  are  arrayed  against  each  other,  a  go-between  unrelated 
to  both  parties  is  chosen  by  common  consent  but  his  sole 
power  is  that  of  personal  persuasiveness.  Theoretically, 
then,  disintegration  might  reach  the  point  where  a  commun- 
ity would  break  up  into  completely  dissociated  kins.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  primitive  tribe 
where  customary  law  has  settled  with  greater  particularity 
what  course  is  proper  in  any  one  of  a  host  of  possible  con- 
tingencies. This  means  that  what  is  lacking  in  formal 
cohesion  is  partly  made  up  by  the  force  of  a  public  opinion 
covering  the  main  incidents  of  social  intercourse.  Thus 
when  an  adulterer  taken  in  delicto  is  slain  by  the  irate  hus- 
band, the  kin  may  indeed  prepare  to  wreak  vengeance  but 


4IO  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

in  so  doing  they  do  not  condone  the  act  of  adultery;  they 
merely  take  the  stand  that  the  offended  mate  should  have 
demanded  the  customary  fine,  "that  if  this  had  not  been 
immediately  forthcoming,  no  one  would  have  questioned  the 
propriety  of  the  killing."  In  other  words,  grievances  are 
not  solely  regarded  from  the  angle  of  kinship  but  are  ap- 
praised according  to  canons  accepted  throughout  the  com- 
munity, which,  of  course,  would  cease  to  be  one  if  such 
were  not  the  case.  It  remains  a  strange  phenomenon,  how- 
ever, that  the  Ifugao  with  all  their  accentuation  of  the  kin- 
ship factor  have  gone  so  far  in  standardizing  what  might 
be  likened  to  international  procedure.  To  be  sure,  there 
are  deviations  from  the  norm  precisely  as  in  the  relations 
of  nations ;  the  strong  kin  is  able  to  browbeat  a  poorer  or 
less  numerous  group.  Nevertheless,  the  overriding  of  jus- 
tice seems  to  be  restricted  within  certain  limits.  The 
wealthy  adulterer  may  refuse  to  pay  the  high-grade  indem- 
nity demanded  by  an  indigent  plaintiff,  but  he  throws  a  sop 
to  morality  by  offering  the  lowest  possible  fine  in  such  a 
case,  that  paid  when  both  litigants  are  of  the  poverty- 
stricken  caste.  Moreover,  it  happens  that  the  poor  sufferer, 
reckless  because  he  has  nothing  to  lose  but  his  misery,  as- 
sumes so  menacing  an  attitude  that  the  culprit,  counseled 
to  be  prudent  by  his  terrified  relatives,  consents  to  pay  the 
exorbitant  fine.  The  general  acceptance  of  certain  modes 
of  conduct  as  proper  is  also  strikingly  illustrated  by  the 
law  of  seizure.  When  a  debtor  refuses  to  pay  the  cus- 
tomary fine  for  some  misdeed,  the  creditor  may  furtively 
or  by  a  ruse  remove  a  gong  or  some  other  valuable  from  his 
opponent's  dwelling.  Provided  the  confiscator  leaves  his 
knife  or  some  other  article  identifying  him,  his  act  has  legal 
validity,  that  is,  is  acknowledged  as  just,  otherwise  it  con- 
stitutes a  form  of  larceny. 

The  anarchy  that  on  abstract  principles  follows  from  the 
coexistence  of  a  series  of  sovereign  groups  in  the  same 
locality  is  thus  seen  to  be  mitigated  by  common  standards, 


JUSTICE  411 

to  which  at  least  approximate  conformity  is  yielded  by  the 
entire  community.  Indeed,  it  may  safely  be  stated  that 
Ifugao  society  for  all  its  centrifugal  character  is  not  lack- 
ing in  germs  that  might  under  favorable  conditions  develop 
into  a  political  organization.  The  very  existence  of  the 
go-between's  office  must  be  viewed  in  this  light.  True,  he 
has  no  authority  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term ;  but  he  may 
acquire  a  reputation  for  peace-making  that  becomes  both 
a  source  of  income  and  of  personal  prestige.  To  maintain 
his  standing  he  will  go  to  considerable  lengths :  he  will  fol- 
low the  unconciliatory  plaintiff  or  the  obdurate  culprit,  war- 
knife  in  hand,  and  compel  him  to  listen.  Secondly,  in  spite 
of  the  neutrality  of  all  kins  not  immediately  concerned 
there  is  by  no  means  general  indifference  as  to  a  quarrel. 
"Neighbors  and  co-villagers  do  not  want  to  see  their  neigh- 
borhood torn  by  internal  dissension  and  thus  weakened  as 
to  the  conduct  of  warfare  against  enemies."  That  is  to  say, 
the  territorial  motive,  completely  overshadowed  as  it  is  by 
the  kinship  ties,  nevertheless  exists  in  embryo.  At  an 
actual  feud  skirmish  the  onlookers  shouted :  "What  kind  of 
way  is  this  for  co-villagers  to  settle  a  dispute?  Go  back 
home  and  beget  some  children,  and  marry  them  to  each 
other,  giving  them  the  two  fields,  and  then  it  will  make  no 
difference  where  the  division  line  is !"  Scattered  remarks 
in  Mr.  Barton's  essay  show  that  this  sentiment  crops  up  in 
various  ways.  We  learn  of  a  tacit  understanding  that  an 
Ifugao  shall  so  behave  as  to  avoid  involving  his  neighbors 
in  difficulties  with  natives  of  inimical  or  semi-inimical  dis- 
tricts. It  is  also  important  to  note  that  while  collective 
responsibility  applies  mainly  to  the  kin  it  may  also  extend 
to  the  district.  A  creditor  will  seize  property  belonging  to 
the  wealthy  kinsman  of  a  tardy  debtor,  but  when  occasion 
arises  he  is  also  likely  to  confiscate  the  carabao  of  his  debt- 
or's fellow-villager.  Finally  may  be  cited  the  distinction 
drawn  between  an  alien  and  a  fellow-villager  as  regards 
punishment :  the  foreigner  caught  stealing  is  almost  certain 


412  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

to  be  slain,  the  neighbor  of  another  kin  merely  pays  the 
regular  fine.  It  cannot,  accordingly,  be  denied  that  a  senti- 
ment based  on  local  contiguity  exists  among  the  Ifugao, 
however  faint  when  compared  with  the  rival  sentiment  of 
blood-relationship. 

The  main  features  of  Ifugao  jurisprudence,  kin  solid- 
arity, the  functions  of  the  intermediary,  the  influence  of 
caste,  and  the  arrangement  of  ordeals  have  been  briefly  re- 
ferred to  in  this  and  preceding  sections.  It  remains  to 
point  out  specifically  one  feature  as  to  the  nature  of  penal- 
ties, and  another  as  to  procedure.  All  punishment  falls  into 
either  of  two  categories — the  imposition  of  fines  and  the 
infliction  of  death.  Flogging  or  any  other  form  of  per- 
sonal chastisement  such  as  we  encounter  in  Australia  is  not 
in  vogue;  nor  is  imprisonment  reported  as  a  possible  pen- 
alty. In  procedure  it  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  plaintiff  and 
defendant  never  confront  each  other.  As  soon  as  the  con- 
troversy is  formally  launched,  there  is  complete  severance 
of  diplomatic  relations,  all  business  being  conducted  by  the 
go-between,  who  hears  the  testimony  of  each  litigant  sepa- 
rately and  reports  the  strong  points  to  his  opponent.  Nat- 
urally this  principle  becomes  inoperative  when  ordeals  are 
resorted  to.* 

Eskimo 

Sharply  defined  as  the  Eskimo  are,  both  racially  and  lin- 
guistically, there  is  not  the  slightest  political  cohesion 
among  even  neighboring  districts.  "The  inhabitants  of  a 
settlement,"  says  Holm,  "often  form  a  society  apart,  and 
indeed  are  often  at  variance  with  the  people  living  in  an- 
other settlement.  Thus  the  inhabitants  of  the  lower  part 
of  the  Angmagsalik  fjord  and  those  of  the  upper  part 
abused  each  other  roundly.  Similar  amenities  existed  be- 
tween the  inhabitants  of  the  three  fjords."  Among  the 
Central  Eskimo  also  there  is  a  deep  distrust  of  neighboring 


JUSTICE  413 

Eskimo  tribes,  preventing-  frequent  intercourse.  A  stranger 
is  often  challenged  to  a  contest  of  strength  or  endurance 
and  if  vanquished  forfeits  his  life.  In  Greenland  no  one 
may  settle  in  a  winter  hamlet  without  the  general  consent 
of  the  inhabitants. 

These  facts,  of  course,  tend  to  show  that  there  is  a  feel- 
ing based  on  territorial  community  within  a  very  restricted 
area  rather  than  that  such  a  feeling  is  lacking.  But  since 
there  is  no  dominant  governing  agency  in  an  Eskimo  settle- 
ment, the  adjustment  of  grievances  is  mainly  a  matter  for 
the  individuals  or  kins  rather  than  for  the  community  at 
large.  In  this  respect,  then,  the  Eskimo  resemble  the 
Ifugao.  But  the  Eskimo  represent  a  much  ruder  state  of 
society,  and  accordingly  there  is  none  of  that  precision  so 
characteristic  of  the  Ifugao.  The  communistic  trend  of 
Eskimo  thought  alone  suffices  to  render  their  jurisprudence 
of  a  simpler  nature  since  it  minimizes  property  law  and  is 
hardly  conducive  to  an  elaborate  scale  of  fines.  Indeed,  we 
hear  nothing  concerning  such  penalties. 

On  the  whole,  the  Eskimo  are  not  a  quarrelsome  people 
and  the  method  of  adjudicating  a  personal  difficulty  in 
Greenland  is  typical  of  their  general  spirit.  A  Greenlander 
who  has  suffered  some  injury,  whether  by  theft,  destruc- 
tion of  property  or  the  abduction  of  his  wife,  will  compose 
a  satirical  song  in  mockery  of  the  culprit  and  challenge  him 
to  a  public  singing  contest.  Drumming  and  chanting,  he 
throws  his  enemy's  misdeeds  into  his  teeth,  exaggerating 
and  deriding  them  and  even  rattling  the  family  skeletons  as 
well.  The  accused  person  receives  the  mockery  with 
feigned  composure  and  at  the  close  of  the  challenger's 
charge  returns  in  kind.  Apart  from  the  period  of  singing, 
no  hostility  whatsoever  is  displayed.  The  spectators  follow 
proceedings  with  the  greatest  interest,  egging  on  the  per- 
formers to  their  utmost  efforts.  Such  contests  need  not  be 
settled  in  one  evening  but  may  be  continued  for  a  number 
of  years,  the  litigants  taking  turns  at  inviting  each  other. 


414  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Cases  of  murder  are  naturally  viewed  in  a  different  light, 
but  here,  too,  there  is  usually  no  pretence  at  a  public  admin- 
istration of  justice.  The  nearest  relative  of  the  slain  per- 
son wreaks  vengeance  on  the  slayer  or  one  of  his  kinsmen, 
through  the  principle  of  collective  responsibility  the  quarrel 
may  be  handed  down  to  the  following  generation,  and  a 
number  of  innocent  people  will  suffer  death  before  a  formal 
reconciliation  is  effected.  In  connection  with  the  carrying 
out  of  the  feud  curious  usages  are  reported  from  widely 
separated  sections  of  the  Eskimo  habitat.  Years  may  pass 
before  punishment  for  the  misdeed  is  attempted,  and  in  the 
meantime  the  murderer  may  visit  his  victim's  family,  be 
welcomed  and  entertained  by  them,  and  live  in  peace  for 
the  longest  period.  Then  he  may  suddenly  be  dispatched 
by  his  companions  on  a  hunting  party  or  challenged  to  a 
wrestling  match  and  put  to  death  if  vanquished. 

There  are  instances,  however,  where  a  murderer  or  some 
other  offender  has  made  himself  obnoxious  to  the  entire 
community.  In  such  a  case  he  may  be  killed  by  anyone 
simply  as  a  matter  of  justice.  The  man  who  intends  to 
take  revenge  on  him  must  ask  his  countrymen  singly  if  each 
agrees  in  the  opinion  that  the  offender  is  a  bad  man  deserv- 
ing death.  If  all  answer  in  the  affirmative,  he  may  kill  the 
man  thus  condemned  and  no  one  is  allowed  to  revenge  the 
murder.  Summary  punishment  is  also  meted  out  to  people 
accused  of  witchcraft  supposed  to  have  caused  the  death 
of  a  relative ;  but  then  the  slaying  of  the  sorcerer  may  pre- 
cipitate a  feud  of  the  usual  character. 

There  is  another  category  of  delinquencies  coming  under 
the  head  of  sins.  It  is  a  cardinal  tenet  of  Eskimo  religion 
that  the  transgression  of  any  one  of  a  legion  of  taboos  en- 
dangers the  food  supply:  all  efforts  to  hunt  seals  prove 
fruitless  and  the  settlement  is  on  the  verge  of  starvation. 
Only  confession  by  the  transgressor  will  ward  off  the  pen- 
alty inflicted  by  the  supernatural  powers.  Hence  a  shaman 
is  invoked  to  discover  the  cause  of  the  calamity.     If  the 


JUSTICE  415 

criminal  confesses,  all  is  well;  "but  if  he  obstinately  main- 
tains his  innocence,  his  death  alone  will  soothe  the  wrath 
of  the  offended  deity." 

It  appears  accordingly  that  the  community  is  not  uni- 
formly indifferent  as  to  the  acts  of  its  members,  but  that 
like  other  societies  it  interprets  in  a  manner  sui  generis  the 
conditions  under  which  collective  interference  by  the  ter- 
ritorial unit  is  desirable..^ 

Plains  Indians 

As  might  be  expected  from  the  prevalently  individualistic 
character  of  Plains  Indian  culture,  most  difficulties  were 
settled  by  individuals  and  by  their  kindred.  Thus,  adultery 
was  not  an  affair  of  public  concern,  and  if  an  indignant 
husband  cruelly  beat  or  maimed  his  unfaithful  wife  he  was 
not  answerable  to  any  communal  authority.  Even  in  cases 
of  homicide  the  families  or  sibs  of  the  murderer  and  the 
slain  person  were  primarily  involved,  but  in  such  instances 
there  was  generally  a  definite  attempt  by  the  chiefs  or  other 
officials  to  avert  a  feud.  This  was  often  done  by  thrusting 
a  pipe  into  the  principal  mourner's  mouth,  which  morally 
obliged  him  to  accept  such  composition  for  the  felony  as  the 
slayer  and  his  relatives  were  only  too  glad  to  offer.  Peace- 
making was  generally  the  duty  of  the  constabulary  super- 
intending the  buffalo  hunt.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out 
how  large  the  powers  of  these  policemen  were  at  the  time 
of  this  cooperative  enterprise.  Indeed,  disobedience  to 
their  orders  on  that  occasion  and  consequent  imperilment  of 
the  food  supply  may  be  regarded  as  the  one  crime  against 
society  recognized  by  all  the  Plains  tribes.  The  severe  pun- 
ishment meted  out  to  the  culprit  has  already  been  described. 
The  police  society  also  restrained  men  from  inopportune 
raids,  preserved  order  on  the  march  or  on  ceremonial  occa- 
sions, and  in  general  exercised  authority  when  the  success 
of  collective  undertakings  was  at  stake. 


4i6  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

The  Omaha  present  typical  Plains  characteristics  in  their 
administration  of  law,  but  with  some  additional  traits.  The 
Council  of  Seven  had  the  power  to  order  the  killing  of  an 
unruly  and  rebellious  tribesman.  The  decree  was  executed 
by  some  trustworthy  man  with  the  aid  of  a  poisoned  staff. 
Usually  it  was  customary  to  give  the  criminal  fair  warning 
by  first  destroying  his  horses;  but  if  he  failed  to  pay  heed 
to  this  admonition,  he  himself  would  suffer  the  extreme 
penalty.  The  councilors  also  took  note  of  deliberate  mur- 
ders, which  were  punished  with  a  four  years'  banishment. 
During  this  period  the  murderer  was  obliged  to  remain  on 
the  edge  of  the  camp  and  hold  no  intercourse  with  anyone 
but  his  immediate  family,  who  might  seek  him  out  and  fur- 
nish him  with  provisions.  The  duration  of  the  penalty  was 
in  a  measure  dependent  on  the  sentiments  of  the  mourning 
kin,  for  as  soon  as  they  relented  the  exile  was  allowed  to 
return.  That  is  to  say,  homicide  despite  tribal  interference 
ranked  after  all  as  a  tort :  it  was  not  the  tribe  that  exacted 
punishment  but  the  suffering  family,  and  the  council  inter- 
vened not  to  inflict  a  condign  penalty  but  to  satisfy  the  pri- 
vate feeling  of  revenge  and  prevent  civil  dissension  with 
consequent  weakening  of  the  community.  The  crimes  of 
Omaha  law  were  apparently  only  twofold — setting  at 
naught  the  authority  of  the  seven  chiefs  and  premature 
hunting  in  the  communal  chase. ^ 

Polynesia 

The  parliamentary  body  that  governed  the  Samoan  settle- 
ments and  districts  combined  judicial  functions  with  legis- 
lative and  executive  powers,  but  it  is  not  altogether  clear 
to  what  extent  personal  wrongs  were  redressed  by  the 
council.  That  in  some  instances  private  arrangements  for 
composition  were  made,  has  already  been  shown,  but  where 
the  line  of  demarcation  was  drawn,  what  type  of  offences 
were  reserved  for  public  vengeance,  is  a  matter  of  some 


JUSTICE  417 

doubt.  Thus  homicide  was  evident!}^  at  times  compounded, 
but  in  the  case  of  a  particularly  atrocious  multiple  murder 
reported  by  Stair  the  perpetrator  was  formally  tried  and 
executed. 

A  strange  feature  of  Samoan  customary  law  was  the 
organization  of  a  plundering  expedition  against  the  culprit 
by  the  local  assembly.  As  soon  as  a  decision  had  been 
reached,  the  leaders  of  the  community  proceeded  to  the 
household  of  the  offender,  formally  pronounced  sentence, 
and  began  to  ring  a  breadfruit-tree  on  the  estate,  at  which 
signal  their  followers  at  once  stripped  the  taro'  patches, 
killed  the  livestock,  set  the  house  on  fire,  and  drove  the 
whole  family  into  exile.  Primitive  raids  of  this  type  were 
not  confined  to  Samoa  but  flourished  in  other  parts  of 
Polynesia.  Thus,  if  a  Maori  had  accidentally  destroyed 
collective  property  by  a  fire  or  deprived  his  tribe  of  food 
through  an  act  of  carelessness,  his  neighbors  would  come 
in  a  body  and  freely  appropriate  his  belongings,  possibly 
thrashing  him  in  addition. 

Other  penalties  display  great  refinement  of  cruelty.  For 
theft,  for  affronting  travelers,  and  for  some  other  forms 
of  misdemeanor  the  assembly  might  order  the  defendant  to 
beat  his  head  and  chest  with  a  rock  till  his  blood  flowed 
freely.  He  was  sometimes  forced  to  bite  a  poisonous  root 
that  would  cause  his  mouth  to  swell,  inflicting  intense  pain 
for  some  time  to  come.  Another  favorite  torture  for 
thieves  was  to  bind  their  hands  and  feet  and  expose  them 
to  the  broiling  sun. 

Hawaiian  jurisprudence  acknowledged  the  absolute  pri- 
macy of  the  king,  whose  will  was  law  and  could  absolve 
from  obedience  to  traditional  laws.  Though  the  lesser 
lords  had  similar  powers  over  the  inhabitants  of  their  do- 
main, it  was  possible  for  a  subject  to  appeal  from  a  de- 
cision of  his  chief  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  king.  In 
spite  of  monarchical  and  feudal  institutions,  however,  some 
characteristic   Polynesian  customs  continued  to  obtain  in 


4i8  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

ordinary  relations.  For  example,  plundering  expeditions 
were  recognized  as  legal  in  retaliation  for  theft,  and  the 
malefactor  would  submit  even  if  commanding  a  strong 
force  lest  the  man  power  of  the  entire  district  be  hurled 
against  him.  A  curious  ordeal  was  in  vogue  in  Hawaii. 
Plaintiff  and  defendant  were  ordered  to  hold  their  hands 
above  a  calabash  filled  with  water,  which  was  supposed  to 
tremble  and  thus  reveal  the  guilty  party. 

Evidently  the  Polynesians  must  be  reckoned  among  those 
peoples  who,  irrespective  of  their  law  of  torts,  also  pun- 
ished as  crimes  offenses  against  the  community  or  the 
ruler.^ 

Africa 

Among  the  Negroes  of  Africa  primitive  jurisprudence 
attains  its  highest  development.  In  precision  and  scope 
their  code  rivals  that  of  the  Ifugao,  but  unlike  the  Ifugao 
the  Negroes  have  almost  everywhere  an  orderly  method  of 
procedure  before  constituted  tribunals.  They  display  a  re- 
markable taste  for  juridical  casuistry  and  a  keen  enjoyment 
of  forensic  eloquence.  The  notion  of  collective  and  conse- 
quently vicarious  responsibility  is  by  no  means  lacking,  but 
such  is  the  authority  of  the  courts  that  vendettas  are  rare 
and  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term  probably  unknown. 
When  an  Ewe  had  committed  murder,  the  victim's  kin 
sometimes  kidnapped  members  of  the  criminal's  household 
or  destroyed  their  fields  and  houses,  but  that  seems  as  far 
as  the  feud  went  and  even  in  this  diluted  form  it  was  rather 
exceptional.  There  is  no  one  source  that  adequately  de- 
scribes African  jurisprudence ;  accordingly,  it  will  ,be  well 
to  summarize  the  mutually  complementary  data  from  sev- 
eral areas. 

In  contemplating  the  legal  institutions  of  the  Ewe,  and 
indeed  of  all  the  Negro  peoples,  we  are  again  reminded  of 
the  intimate  bond  connecting  departments  of  primitive  cul- 


JUSTICE  419 

ture  that  are  largely  though  not  wholly  separated  in  our 
own.  Ewe  jurisprudence  is  unintelligible  without  some 
knowledge  of  Ewe  philosophy  of  the  universe.  More  par- 
ticularly are  we  concerned  with  two  basic  conceptions,  the 
belief  in  sorcery  and  the  belief  in  ordeals  for  the  ascertain- 
ment of  guilt.  Opposed  to  the  benevolent  magician  who 
cures  disease  is  the  evil  sorcerer  who  furtively  strews  poison 
on  his  victim's  bowl  or  furniture,  afflicting  him  with  suffer- 
ing or  death.  When  a  man  is  accused  of  bewitching  a 
tribesman  he  attempts  to  clear  himself  by  undergoing  one 
of  the  prescribed  tests  of  innocence.  These  are  in  charge 
of  a  special  guild,  each  member  of  which  has  acquired 
his  knowledge  by  purchase  and  adoption  into  the  frater- 
nity. 

First  of  all,  the  test-owner  subjects  the  defendant  to  a 
cross-examination.  He  asks  whether  the  accused  has  ever 
bewitched  any  one  or  has  previously  been  condemned  by  an 
ordeal,  which  of  course  is  vigorously  denied.  Next  comes 
the  choice  of  the  particular  test  to  be  applied.  For  example, 
a  grain  of  salt  may  be  cast  into  a  bowl  of  boiling  palm-oil : 
if  it  splits  in  two,  this  is  taken  as  a  sign  of  guilt;  if  it  re- 
mains whole,  it  indicates  the  accused  man's  innocence. 
This  proof  is  supplemented  by  another.  Boiling  oil  is 
poured  into  the  defendant's  hand ;  if  he  holds  it  without 
signs  of  distress,  his  innocence  is  established,  otherwise  the 
charge  is  sustained.  The  outcome  naturally  lies  in  the 
manipulator's  hand;  if  he  favors  the  defendant,  he  will 
merely  feign  pouring  hot  oil  and  substitute  oil  that  is  rela- 
tively cool.  In  another  test  the  eyes  of  the  guilty  are 
blinded  by  a  poisonous  juice,  while  those  of  the  innocent 
remain  unscathed. 

These,  then,  are  typical  methods  for  the  determination 
of  the  sorcerer's  guilt.  If  he  stands  convicted,  he  may  yet 
escape  the  extreme  penalty  provided  his  supposed  victim  is 
still  alive.  A  hoe  or  pickaxe  and  a  basket  are  placed  before 
him,  and  he  is  himself  presented  with  a  chance  to  select  his 


420  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

fate.  Pickaxe  and  hoe  symbolize  the  grave  to  be  dug"  for 
him  unless  he  chooses  the  basket,  which  signifies  merely  a 
heavy  fine.  But  if  the  sorcerer  is  guilty  of  murder,  he  is 
bound  with  a  rope,  led  out  of  town  by  several  executioners 
and  interred  alive  or  beaten  to  death. 

It  is  difficult  from  our  modern  point  of  view  to  regard 
with  anything  but  abhorrence  what  seems  a  farrago  of 
savage  brutality  and  ignorance.  Yet  the  cruelties  proceed 
solely  from  the  notion  that  the  sorcerer  is  actually  or  by  in- 
tention a  fiendish  murderer;  and  as  for  this  misconception 
it  remains  a  fact  that  even  in  western  Europe  a  witch  was 
legally  executed  as  late  as  1782. 

The  ordeal  is  not  applied  solely  to  cases  of  sorcery;  the 
test-owner  is  also  invoked  to  detect  a  thief.  A  man  may 
appeal  from  the  verdict,  but  if  the  chiefs  decline  further 
examination  he  has  no  redress.  On  the  other  hand,  with 
the  chiefs'  consent  he  is  permitted  to  seek  a  new  trial  at 
the  hands  of  another  tester;  but  since  all  testers  form  a 
brotherhood  and  keep  one  another  informed  as  to  matters 
of  professional  interest,  the  privilege  is  of  only  academic 
significance.  The  tester's  fees  are  paid  by  the  guilty  party 
and  his  kin ;  they  are  generally  set  at  a  very  high  figure  and 
reduced  only  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  the  unfortunate 
convict.  A  certain  amount  of  cowrie-shell  money,  four 
chickens,  a  goat  and  four  bottles  of  whiskey  constitute  a 
typical  honorarium. 

Obviously  by  no  means  all  legal  action  requires  or  ad- 
mits of  the  machinery  of  the  ordeal.  Under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances suits  are  simply  tried  by  the  council  of  chiefs 
vernacularly  designated  as  "the  old  woman."  Plaintiff  and 
defendant  in  turn  take  the  floor,  the  witnesses  of  both  are 
examined,  and  at  last  the  judges  withdraw  and  announce 
their  verdict  to  the  speaker.  The  latter  proclaims  the  de- 
cision, rubbing  white  earth  on  the  ami  of  the  person  who 
has  won  the  case.  The  loser  is  obliged  to  pay  all  costs  and 
frccjuently  in  addition  must  offer  compensation  to  his  op- 


JUSTICE  421 

ponent.  Judges  are  indemnified  for  their  labors  out  of  the 
court  fees,  but  the  older  chiefs  receive  a  disproportionately 
large  share  of  the  proceeds.  To  convey  an  idea  of  the  spirit 
of  these  court  sessions  is  hardly  possible  without  reproduc- 
ing in  detail  the  transactions  themselves.  Both  the  style  of 
the  pleading  and  of  the  procedure  are  remarkable.  The 
utterances  of  every  witness  are  repeated  by  the  official 
speaker,  through  whom  alone  the  judges  are  apparently  ex- 
pected to  take  cognizance  of  testimony.  Judgments,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  ordeals,  are  not  inexorable,  so  that  a  fine 
may  on  petition  be  commuted  to  one-half  of  the  amount 
originally  set.  In  the  deliverances  of  the  witnesses  and 
litigants  wise  saws,  long-drawn-out  similes,  and  parables 
abound,  "Listen !"  the  speaker  exhorts  his  audience,  "we 
need  not  quarrel  in  to-day's  assembly.  If  we  calmly  discuss 
one  point  after  the  other,  we  shall  discover  who  is  to  blame 
and  shall  know  what  to  do  in  the  case.  If  little  birds  are 
swarming  together  and  a  stone  is  cast  among  them,  usually 
none  is  struck;  but  if  a  particular  one  is  aimed  at,  it  is  sure 
to  be  hit.  ..."  A  chief  complains  of  being  involved  in 
frequent  litigation  by  his  opponent  in  these  words :  "The 
mouse  boxed  the  cat's  ears ;  but  when  the  cat  was  about 
to  box  the  mouse's  ears,  the  mouse  said  that  the  cat  was 
seeking  a  quarrel."  Indeed,  whole  folk-tales  are  recited  in 
illustration  of  a  point. 

One  peculiar  feature  of  Ewe  jurisprudence  is  the  char- 
acter of  the  oath.  There  are  private,  tribal,  royal  and  re- 
ligious oaths.  By  swearing  them  the  aggrieved  person  af- 
firms his  innocence  and  compels  an  official  investigation  of 
the  case.  Oddly  enough,  the  formula  is  commonly  derived 
from  a  calamitous  event.  Thus,  the  tribal  oath  consists  of 
the  words,  "I  swear  by  the  eve  of  the  Ho,"  the  references 
being  to  a  sort  of  Bartholomew's  night  terminating  a  hostile 
assault  by  the  Asante.  When  the  king  has  officially  desig- 
nated some  such  catastrophic  occurrence  as  the  subject  of 
an  oath,  it  must  not  thereafter  be  mentioned  for  any  other 


422  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

purpose.  Private  oaths  refer  in  corresponding  fashion  to 
hardships  encountered  by  a  private  individual. 

Turning  from  Togoland  to  the  Limpopo  region,  we  meet 
with  the  same  essentials  of  African  jurisprudence.  The 
notion  of  collective  responsibility  survives  in  both  areas :  as 
a  Ho  may  have  his  fields  destroyed  because  his  brother  has 
committed  murder,  so  a  Thonga  is  liable  for  his  kinsmen's 
debts.  In  both  tribes  an  authoritative  tribunal  renders  de- 
cisions, in  both  witchcraft  and  the  ordeal  play  a  strangely 
conspicuous  part.  Only  in  minor  particulars  are  there  in- 
teresting variations.  Thus,  among  the  Thonga  there  is  a 
confirmed  belief  in  divination  by  means  of  magical  bones 
and  shells ;  hence  the  diviner  casts  lots  in  what  may  be  called 
the  preliminar}'-  investigation  of  a  death  by  evil  magic.  If 
the  same  sorcerer  is  twice  designated  by  this  test,  the 
accusation  becomes  official  and  is  brought  before  the  tri- 
bunal, whereupon  the  diviner  undertakes  a  new  examina- 
tion by  questioning,  working  himself  into  a  trance-like 
condition.  If  the  earlier  suggestions  are  still  corroborated 
and  the  defendant  asserts  his  innocence,  he  is  tried  by  an 
ordeal,  being  obliged  to  swallow  an  intoxicating  draught. 
If  he  falls  under  its  sway,  his  guilt  is  certain  and  under 
aboriginal  law  he  is  condemned  to  death  by  hanging,  im- 
palement or  drowning.  In  all  this  there  is  no  new  principle 
involved,  and  the  same  applies  to  civil  cases.  But  details 
are  naturally  moulded  by  specific  cultural  features.  Since 
Thonga  social  life  largely  centers  in  the  conceptions  of  the 
marriage  contract,  ninety  per  cent  of  the  civil  suits  revolve 
about  the  bride-price  and  are  decided  in  accordance  with 
its  traditional  interpretation.  When  a  woman  has  definitely 
left  her  husband,  her  relatives  must  restore  the  amount 
paid  for  her,  while  the  children  revert  to  the  mother. 

Regarding  the  law  of  the  Kafir  tribes  to  the  south  of  the 
Thonga  much  valuable  information  has  been  made  acces- 
sible. Among  the  Amaxosa  and  their  neighbors  a  funda- 
mental   distinction    is    drawn   between   criminal    and    civil 


JUSTICE  423 

cases.  The  former  include  political  offenses,  sorcery,  and 
crimes  against  the  persons  of  tribesmen ;  they  are  prose- 
cuted by  the  chiefs  and  the  fines  belong  to  them  by  inalien- 
able right.  All  other  cases  are  prosecuted  by  the  plaintiffs 
and  the  chiefs  have  no  claim  to  the  award  made,  though 
the  plaintiffs  must  pay  the  -sheriffs  for  execution  of  the 
court's  sentence,  the  amount  generally  consuming  one-third 
the  value  of  the  fine.  If  the  case  is  thrown  out  of  court, 
there  are  no  expenses  to  be  paid.  Civil  cases  may  be  set- 
tled by  agreement  before  any  councilor,  but  either  party 
may  appeal  from  the  decision  to  the  chief.  Sometimes  a 
councilor  mulcts  a  subject  for  assault  and  retains  the 
fine,  but  this  is  an  act  of  usurpation  and  the  chief  can  at 
any  time  demand  the  amount  pocketed  by  his  subordi- 
nate. 

Kafir  criminal  law  rests  primarily  on  the  principle  that 
the  persons  of  individuals  belong  to  the  chief.  Accord- 
ingly, he  must  be  compensated  for  the  loss  of  a  subject. 
The  penalty  is  seven  head  of  cattle  for  a  male  and  ten  head 
for  a  female ;  this  difference  is  due  to  the  dowry  obtained  at 
marriage.  Compensation  for  all  kinds  of  homicide  is  ex- 
acted regardless  of  the  circumstances.  If  a  sorcerer  dies 
under  torture  or  is  killed  without  the  chief's  explicit  sanc- 
tion, the  chief  is  entitled  to  compensation  though  he  some- 
times renounces  his  prerogative.  In  the  case  of  a  general 
brawl  the  fine  for  each  person  slain  is  imposed  on  all  those 
engaged  in  the  fight  collectively.  Previous  to  about  1820 
a  husband  might  with  impunity  kill  an  adulterer  taken  in 
the  act;  but  the  chief  Gaika  abrogated  this  law  and  placed 
such  cases  on  the  same  plane  with  other  forms  of  man- 
slaughter. For  assault  and  battery  the  fine  ranges  from  one 
to  five  head  of  cattle ;  generally  both  parties  are  fined  as 
nothing  is  considered  to  warrant  one  man  in  striking  an- 
other, even  in  self-defense.  For  abortion  the  woman  and 
her  accomplices  are  mulcted  four  or  five  head  of  cattle,  and 
a  similar  fine  was  imposed  in  the  solitary  case  of  sodomy 


424  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

that  came  to  Mr.  Warner's  notice  during  a  residence  of 
twenty-five  years. 

Adultery  is  a  civil  case.  The  fine  ranges  from  one  to 
four  head  according  to  the  husband's  station  in  society 
and  is  raised  to  from  seven  to  ten  head  if  pregnancy  has 
demonstrably  resulted.  The  child  belongs  to  the  husband, 
who  is  obliged  to  provide  for  it.  A  wife  cannot  proceed 
against  her  husband  or  his  paramours  for  adultery.  For 
the  seduction  of  virgins  no  fine  is  imposed,  but  if  preg- 
nancy ensues  the  father  must  pay  one  head  of  cattle  and 
may  subsequently  claim  his  offspring  by  an  additional  pay- 
ment of  two  or  three  head  to  reimburse  the  mother's  kin 
for  the  trouble  of  rearing  the  child.  Without  such  indem- 
nification it  remains  in  their  custody.  Theft  occurs  mainly 
in  the  form  of  stock-raiding.  When  the  property  is  not 
recovered,  a  tenfold  compensation  was  anciently  deemed 
proper;  otherwise  no  fine  was  imposed.  As  already  set 
forth  in  another  connection,  wilful  injury  to  property  calls 
for  complete  indemnification,  but  for  accidental  injury  no 
damages  are  granted. 

Fines  thus  constitute  the  only  normal  penalty  recognized 
by  Kafir  law.  Only  when  a  subject  defies  the  authority 
of  the  ruler,  the  chief  will  clandestinely  gather  an  armed 
force,  descend  upon  the  rebellious  household,  seize  all  the 
livestock,  and  if  resistance  is  made  have  the  outlaws  killed 
without  ceremony. 

The  kingdom  of  Uganda  represents  the  most  highly  or- 
ganized of  aboriginal  states  and  its  legal  institutions  nat- 
urally display  some  additional  features.  Here  there  was  a 
series  of  hierarchically  graded  courts.  Even  petty  chiefs 
acted  as  magistrates  for  their  subjects,  but  these  had  the 
privilege  of  appealing  to  successively  higher  authorities  until 
they  got  to  the  grandee  combining  the  functions  of  a  prime 
minister  with  those  of  a  chief  justice.  In  his  court  most 
appeals  ended,  but  exceptional  cases  were  brought  before 
the  king  himself.     The  chief  justice  had  a  deputy  for  try- 


JUSTICE  425 

ing  the  less  important  cases,  but  expected  a  report  from  his 
assistant  and  himself  rendered  judgment  accordingly.  In 
each  of  the  lower  tribunals  the  plaintiff  paid  a  fee  of  twenty 
cowrie-shells  when  stating  his  case  and  a  supplementary 
fee  of  a  goat  and  a  barkcloth  before  the  defendant  was 
summoned ;  the  latter  also  made  an  initial  payment  of  a  goat 
and  a  barkcloth.  If  the  defendant  was  convicted,  he  had  to 
pay  the  plaintiff  two  goats  and  a  barkcloth  over  and  above 
the  award.  In  appealing  to  the  prime  minister's  court  the 
plaintiff  was  obliged  to  pay  ten  goats  and  five  barkcloths 
as  the  initial  fee.  The  minister,  besides  this  fee,  received 
one-fourth  of  the  fine  imposed,  and  the  loser  had  to  refund 
all  the  court  fees. 

In  addition  to  features  common  to  African  tribes  such 
as  the  ordeal  and  collective  composition  for  crime  Uganda 
law  recognized  torture  for  the  purpose  of  extracting  in- 
formation and  as  a  penalty  confinement  in  the  stocks,  the 
culprit  usually  having  his  foot  thrust  into  the  hole  cut 
through  a  heavy  log.  A  rope  tied  to  the  leg  enabled  the 
prisoner  to  lift  it  and  walk,  but  the  constant  rubbing  of  the 
wood  against  his  foot  and  the  use  of  guards  made  escape 
impracticable.  Sometimes  both  arms  and  one  leg  were  put 
into  the  stocks.  Uganda  usage  certainly  demonstrates  once 
more  how  little  connection  there  is  between  elaboration  and 
refinement  of  social  life.^ 

Conclusion 

It  has  now  been  demonstrated  to  satiety  that  the  majority 
of  primitive  communities  recognize  not  merely  wrongs  in- 
flicted by  individuals  upon  individuals  and  precipitating  a 
dispute  between  their  respective  kins,  but  that  over  and 
above  the  law  of  torts  there  is  generally  a  law  of  crimes,  of 
outrages  resented  not  by  a  restricted  group  of  relatives  but 
by  the  entire  community  or  its  directors.  The  conclusion 
reacts  upon  and  strengthens  the  argument  of  the  preceding 


426  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

chapter,  for  it  shows  the  reaHty  of  the  territorial  unit  for 
certain  specific  social  aims.  Naturally  the  relative  strength 
of  the  kinship  and  the  territorial  sentiment  varies  with  the 
tribe;  or  better,  their  spheres  of  dominance  differ  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  globe.  But  even  in  so  exaggerated  an  in- 
stance of  discrete  kins  as  that  of  the  Ifugao  a  latent  neigh- 
borliness  comes  to  light  when  the  mutual  reactions  of  co- 
villagers  are  contrasted  with  the  sentiments  evoked  by  an 
outsider.  The  territorial  bond  must  then  be  considered  as 
one  of  the  social  ties  occurring  concomitantly  with  others 
in  the  simpler  stages  of  civilization. 

References 

^  Maine :   Chap.  x.    Hobhouse  :   Chap.  iii. 

^  Barton :  passim.  Bogoras :  662.  Goddard,  1903 :  59. 
Maclean:  60,  67.  Radloff:  523.  Stair:  96.  Dixon,  1907: 
452.    Lewie,  1912:   238. 

^  Roth,  1906.  Spencer  and  Gillen,  1904:  25,  556.  Hewitt: 
183,  254,  296,  326  seq. 

*  Barton. 

^Thalbitzer:  59,  127.  Boas,  1888:  465.  561,  582,  609;  id., 
1907:   115-121,467.    Cranz:   1,231,249.    Hawkes,  1916:   109. 

®  Fletcher  and  La  Flesche  :    213. 

^  Stair:    91  seq.     Tregear:    139.     ElHs,  Wm. :    iv,  419-423. 

«Spieth:  123-181,  278-283,  535-543-  Junod:  i,  410-421. 
Maclean:  57-75.     Rescee:  260-267. 


CHAPTER  XV 


CONCLUSION 


PRIMITIVE  society  wears  a  character  rather  different 
from  that  popularized  by  Morgan's  school.  Instead  of 
dull  uniformity,  there  is  mottled  diversity;  instead  of  the 
single  sib  pattern  multiplied  in  fulsome  profusion  we  de- 
tect a  variety  of  social  units,  now  associated  with  the  sib, 
now  taking  its  place.  Let  us  visualize  the  actual  aspect  of 
primitive  conditions  by  a  concrete  example  from  a  by  no 
means  unusually  complicated  social  environment. 

In  the  Mountain  Crow  band,  some  eighty  years  ago,  a 
woman  of  the  Thick-lodge  sib  gives  birth  to  a  boy.  Her 
husband  summons  a  renowned  warrior  of  his  sib,  the  Bad- 
leggings,  who  dubs  the  child  Strikes-three-men  in  memory 
of  one  of  his  own  exploits.  As  Strikes-three-men  grows  up, 
he  learns  how  to  act  towards  the  relatives  on  either  side  of 
his  family  and  what  conduct  to  expect  in  return.  The 
female  Thick-lodges  make  for  him  beaded  shirts  and  mocca- 
sins, on  the  male  members  he  can  rely  for  aid  in  any  diffi- 
culty. His  father  he  comes  to  regard  as  the  natural 
provider  and  protector  of  the  immediate  family  circle ;  to 
all  the  other  men  of  the  Bad-leggings  sib  he  gives  presents 
when  he  can  and  treats  them  with  respect.  On  their  part 
they  become  his  official  eulogists  as  soon  as  he  distinguishes 
himself  by  skill  as  a  hunter  or  by  bravery  in  battle;  and  the 
bond  between  him  and  them  is  so  close  that  when  one  of 
them  commits  an  offense  against  tribal  etiquette  an  ap- 
propriate nickname  is  attached  to  his  own  person.  With 
the  children  of  his  'fathers'  a  curious  reciprocal  relation- 

427 


428  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

ship  unites  him.  They  are  his  mentors  and  he  is  theirs. 
They  throw  in  his  teeth  his  foibles  and  misdemeanors,  and 
he  retahates  in  kind.  To  these  various  relations  based  on 
family  and  sib  ties  associational  ones  are  soon  added.  He 
enters  a  league  of  playmates  mimicking  the  warrior  socie- 
ties and  tries  to  gain  glory  by  striking  deer  and  buffalo  as 
the  older  braves  count  coup  on  Dakota  or  Cheyenne  foe- 
men.  As  he  grows  older,  Albino-bull,  one  of  his  com- 
panions, becomes  a  bosom  friend.  Together  they  go  court- 
ing and  share  each  other's  mistresses ;  together  they  set  out 
on  war  parties,  each  shielding  the  other  at  the  risk  of  his 
own  life;  together  they  join  the  Fox  society  to  which  Al- 
bino-bull has  been  invited ;  and  together  they  leave  it  when 
the  rival  Lumpwoods,  impressed  by  the  young  men's  war 
record,  bribe  them  into  their  fold.  Now  a  novel  set  of  re- 
lations ensues.  Strikes-three-men  aids  his  fellow-Lump- 
woods  as  he  aids  his  sib-mates ;  he  and  his  comrade  partici- 
pate in  all  of  the  society's  feasts  and  dances ;  and  they  while 
away  leisure  hours  lounging  and  smoking  in  the  tents  of 
their  new  associates  and  singing  Lumpwood  songs.  When 
Strikes-three-men  buys  a  wife,  still  another  unit  is  added 
to  his  social  groups ;  added  rather  than  substituted  for  the 
old  family  group  because  the  tie  that  links  him  with  his 
brothers  and  sisters  remains  not  only  unsnapped  but  in  full 
force.  About  this  time  a  fancy  may  seize  our  hero  to  cast 
in  his  lot  with  the  band  hunting  about  the  Yellowstone  con- 
fluence. Henceforth  its  political  relations  become  his. 
With  his  new  fellows  he  pays  visits  to  the  friendly  Village 
tribes  of  the  upper  Missouri,  with  them  he  pursues  a  gang 
of  Dakota  raiders,  and  when  the  Mountain  Crow  decline  to 
join  a  punitive  war  party  against  the  hereditary  enemy  he  is 
as  vociferous  as  any  River  Crow  in  denouncing  the  pusil- 
lanimity of  the  band  of  his  nativity.  From  the  start  he  has 
been  no  stranger  in  the  strange  land :  there  are  Thick- 
lodges  on  the  Yellowstone  who  greet  him  as  a  brother,  and 
Jie  mingles  without  formality  with  the  Lumpwoods  ther^ 


CONCLUSION  429 

resident.  The  illness  of  one  of  his  children  may  evoke  a 
vow :  on  its  recovery  he  pledges  himself  to  seek  admission 
into  the  Tobacco  order.  Four-bears,  of  the  Weasel  chap- 
ter, is  willing  to  initiate  him,  and  so  Strikes-three-men  and 
his  wife  become  members,  privileged  to  join  in  the  annual 
planting  of  the  sacred  weed  and  in  all  other  ceremonial 
activities  of  their  branch.  A  special  bond  of  intimacy  unites 
them  henceforth  with  their  sponsor  Four-bears,  from  whom 
an  occasional  horse  may  be  expected  as  a  token  of  paternal 
affection. 

Thus  our  Crow  comes  to  be  a  member  of  some  half-a- 
dozen  well-defined  groups.  By  birth  he  belongs  to  a  sib,  a 
family  and  a  band.  Later  a  life-long  friendship  couples 
him  with  Albino-bull ;  he  joins  the  Fox  and  subsequently  the 
Lumpwood  organization ;  and  is  finally  admitted  to  the  re- 
ligious Tobacco  order.  As  a  mature  man  he  is  simultan- 
eously a  Thick-lodge,  Albino-bull's  partner,  a  Lumpwood,  a 
River  Crow,  a  Weasel,  besides  forming  the  center  of  an 
individual  household.  Manifold  as  are  his  affiliations,  they 
are  hardly  above  the  average  in  number  and  complexity. 
Under  special  circumstances  a  variety  of  others  could  be 
added.  Through  distinguished  valor  he  may  become  a 
chief ;  the  purchase  of  one  medicine  would  establish  a  cere- 
monial tie  between  him  and  the  seller;  by  buying  another 
he  would  come  to  join  still  another  definite  organization,  the 
Horse  Dancers.  On  the  whole,  there  is  remarkably  little 
collision  of  interests  through  this  varied  allegiance ;  and  an 
extension  of  sentimental  attachment  takes  place  rather  than 
a  clash  of  emotions  associated  with  diverse  groups.  Doubt- 
less some  obligations  sit  more  lightly  than  others.  If  one 
of  two  comrades  were  affronted  by  their  military  society, 
both  would  leave  it  and  seek  entrance  into  another.  It  is 
also  safe  to  infer  that  regard  for  one's  wife  would  be  readily 
sacrificed  either  to  one's  blood  kin  or  to  one's  club.  Not 
in  the  real  life  of  the  Crow  bourgeois,  but  by  that  swash- 
buckling standard  of  honor  to  which  he  is  content  to  make 


430  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

public  obeisance,  a  woman  is  only  a  woman  and  to  show 
overmuch  solicitude  on  her  account  would  mean  a  loss  of 
face.  But  the  occasions  for  such  demonstrations  are  not 
over-numerous  and  the  average  tribesman  does  not  suffer 
much  distress  from  the  variety  of  his  memberships. 

The  multiplicity  of  social  relations  could  be  as  strikingly 
illustrated  by  other  examples.  In  the  sibless  Andamans  we 
should  have  to  reckon  with  status  as  determined  by  dietary 
restrictions,  conjugal  and  parental  position.  A  Banks 
Islander  would  be  found  to  belong  at  once  to  a  sib,  a  grade 
in  the  club,  and  half  a  dozen  Ghost  societies.  Among  the 
Vedda  territorial  grouping  would  figure  prominently,  and 
in  Polynesia  distinctions  of  caste  would  come  to  the  fore- 
ground. In  each  and  every  case,  however,  diverse  coexist- 
ing units  would  have  to  be  considered. 

Multiplicity  by  itself  would  not  be  fatal  to  a  generalized 
scheme  of  social  evolution,  for  abstractly  it  is  conceivable 
that  at  a  certain  definite  stage  in  the  history  of  the  sib  or- 
ganization status  groups  would  supervene,  at  another  age- 
classes,  and  so  forth.  But  empirically  it  turns  out  that  the 
several  types  of  social  unit  are  combined  in  a  purely  ca- 
pricious fashion.  In  one  region  we  find  secret  societies 
with  sibs ;  in  another,  sibs  but  no  secret  societies ;  in  a 
third,  a  secret  society  without  sibs ;  a  fourth  tribe  has 
either  or  both  features  in  combination  with  all  sorts  of  as- 
sociations; a  fifth  lacks  both.  Upon  what  principles  can  be 
fixed  the  clironological  order  of  the  observed  combinations  ? 
Shall  we  say  that  Andamanese  siblessness  plus  status  group- 
ing is  anterior  to  Maidu  siblessness  and  lack  of  status 
grouping  plus  a  secret  organization?  And  is  the  Mela- 
nesian  union  of  mother-sibs,  sex  dichotomy  with  graded 
clubs,  and  Ghost  societies,  earlier  or  later  than  the  Hidatsa 
complex  of  mother-sibs,  military  age  organizations  and 
bundle  societies  ?  An  attempt  to  embody  the  exuberant  va- 
riety of  phenomena  in  a  single  chronological  sequence  seems 
hopeless.     Probably  even  adherents  of  unilinear  evolution 


CONCLUSION  431 

would  admit  that  the  totaHty  of  social  manifestations  can- 
not be  dealt  with  in  this  fashion  and  would  be  content  with 
maintaining  that  only  each  distinct  type  of  social  unit  or 
phenomenon  taken  by  itself  tends  to  develop  through  a  fixed 
series  of  stages. 

But  this  contention  has  been  proved  erroneous  for  prac- 
tically every  department  of  social  organization.  Its  fallacy 
becomes  patent  as  soon  as  we  place  side  by  side  the  insti- 
tutions of  tribes  in  distinct  areas  but  on  the  same  general 
level  of  cultural  advancement.  The  aboriginal  Australians 
were  economically  hunters  and  seed-gatherers,  and  that  was 
the  condition  of  the  Paviotso  of  Nevada,  both  representing 
technologically  the  Neolithic  stage  of  European  archaeolo- 
gists. Yet,  whatever  branch  of  their  social  life  we  com- 
pare, there  is  complete  dissimilarity.  The  Australians  have 
sibs,  moieties,  totemism,  classes ;  among  the  Paviotso  not 
even  the  faintest  germ  of  these  institutions  is  to  be  detected 
so  that  there  is  no  reason  to  assume  that  they  ever  would 
have  risen  or  fallen  tO'  a  similar  form  of  organization.  Po- 
litically, too,  there  is  no  suggestion  of  resemblance :  there 
is  no  Paviotso  body  with  powers  comparable  to  those  of  the 
Australian  gerontocracy;  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  noth- 
ing in  Australia  comparable  to  a  director  of  the  rabbit- 
hunt,  in  whom  is  vested  what  meager  central  authority  ex- 
ists in  Nevada.  Australians  and  Plateau  Shoshoneans 
prove  not  only  different  but  incommensurable ;  they  repre- 
sent not  one  line  of  development  but  two  separate  lines.  If 
it  be  suggested  that  these  are  arbitrarily  selected  cases,  let 
others  be  substituted.  The  Andamanese  represent  the  same 
stage  of  general  advancement  and  they  are  sibless  like  the 
Paviotso.  But  to  their  division  into  married  couples,  bache- 
lors and  spinsters  there  is  no  parallel  among  the  Nevada 
oeople;  and  though  the  segregation  of  bachelors  occurs  in 
Australia,  this  partial  resemblance  was  found  to  be  probably 
the  result  of  historical  connection  with  the  same  peoples 
rather  than  of  independent,  spontaneous  evolution. 


432  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

There  is  no  loop-hole  for  the  specious  plea  that  general 
cultural  advancement  and  social  advancement  may  proceed 
in  mutual  independence  of  each  other.  That  argument  has 
already  been  examined  in  another  context  and  its  worthless- 
ness  appears  when  peoples  are  grouped  precisely  according 
to  the  complexity  of  their  social  institutions.  From  that 
angle,  the  Negroes  and  the  Polynesians,  who  would  occupy 
quite  different  rungs  technologically,  may  be  regarded  as 
roughly  equivalent.  Yet  to  compare  Uganda  and  Hawaii 
is  to  pass  from  one  cultural  universe  to  another :  the  Afri- 
cans are  devoid  of  the  Polynesian  caste  system  founded  on 
divine  lineage;  and  throughout  Polynesia  not  a  trace  ap- 
pears of  that  complicated  jurisprudence  that  is  so  marked 
a  trait  of  Negro  Africa.  If  the  assumed  laws  of  social 
evolution  operate  neither  among  peoples  of  like  general 
condition  nor  among  peoples  of  generally  like  complexity  of 
social  organization,  where  can  they  possibly  be  conceived 
to  operate? 

But  what  of  the  resemblances  that  undoubtedly  do  occur 
in  widely  separated  areas?  Is  it  not  an  inherent  law  that 
produces  polyandry  in  Eskimo  and  Toda  communities  or 
sibs  among  the  Pueblo  and  the  Gros  Ventre  Indians?  At 
this  point  it  is  desirable  to  discriminate  more  sharply  than 
has  hitherto  been  done  between  the  theory  of  independent 
development,  which  I  have  again  and  again  advocated,  and 
a  belief  in  laws  regulating  the  independent  reproduction  of 
the  same  scries  of  stages  which  I  now  at  the  close  of  my  in- 
vestigation formally  abjure.  Undoubtedly  there  are  certain 
conditions  that  may  recur  in  different  areas  and  produce 
similar  results.  Scarcity  of  women  and  polyandry  were 
seen  to  he  thus  causally  linked,  but  as  I  have  already  shown 
in  the  appropriate  place  the  parallelism  is  of  strictly  lim- 
ited scope.  The  common  cause  of  polyandry  is  female  in- 
fanticide, but  the  cause  of  infanticide  was  seen  to  vary, 
while  the  implications  of  polyandry  again  show  divergence 
in  the  two  regions  after  the  brief  span  of  likeness.     Gen- 


CONCLUSION  433 

erally  speaking,  the  duplication  of  conditions  may  indeed 
produce  the  duplication  of  one  sequence  but  there  the  mat- 
ter ends.  For  the  course  of  cultural  evolution  depends  not 
on  that  single  element  of  similarity  but  on  the  \\'hole  com- 
plex of  associated  features  as  well,  and  since  these  are  not 
alike  nor  indeed  well  can  be  alike  in  peoples  with  a  distinct 
body  of  cultural  traditions,  the  effect  is  almost  inevitably 
divergence  so  far  as  any  advancement  occurs  at  all.  But 
it  should  be  noted  that  often  enough  such  advancement  is 
not  observed ;  development  terminates  in  a  blind  alley  with 
no  possibility  of  further  parallelism.  When  we  have  recog- 
nized how  a  like  social  point  of  view  can  produce  a  similar 
term  of  opprobrium  among  Australian  blacks  and  Crow 
Indians  (p.  ii),  that  is  as  far  as  we  can  go.  There  is  no 
further  social  result  flowing  from  the  use  of  similar  vituper- 
ative epithets,  nor  can  any  further  consequence  therefrom 
be  readily  imagined.  At  this  juncture  it  is  well  to  revert  to 
the  linguistic  analogy  of  the  introductory  chapter.  When 
the  Shoshoni  and  the  Greeks  independently  evolve  a  dual 
number,  this  is  the  result  of  similar  classificatory  processes, 
but  what  is  the  general  import  of  the  isolated  resemblance  ? 
Precisely  nil.  It  has  not  inaugurated  a  series  of  morpho- 
logical changes  making  both  languages  conform  to  a  com- 
mon linguistic  pattern.  To  be  sure,  it  is  conceivable  that 
a  classification  of  the  type  mentioned  might  be  correlated 
with  certain  other  features  that  are  descriptively  distinct 
though  psychologically  linked.  The  total  resemblance  in 
structure  would  nevertheless  remain  remarkably  slight. 
Now  this  example  illustrates  my  conception  of  the  inde- 
pendent development  of  sociological  or  cultural  traits.  In- 
dependent development  occurs ;  but  its  products  have  a  neg- 
ligible influence  on  the  total  course  of  events  in  their  respec- 
tive series,  which  remain  essentially  distinct. 

The  occurrence  of  convergent  evolution — of  like  results 
achieved  through  different  channels — might  be  cited  as  evi- 
dence of  laws  consummating  predestined  ends.     But  in  by 


434  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

far  the  greater  number  of  instances  the  Hkeness  dissolves  on 
closer  scrutiny  into  a  superficial  or  only  partial  resemblance. 
Thus  teknonymy  appeared  as  a  possible  result  of  a  system 
of  status  designations,  of  feminine  inferiority,  or  of  a 
paucity  of  kinship  terms.  Evidently  the  import  of  the  cus- 
tom is  quite  different  in  these  cases;  or  rather  there  are 
three  customs  which  it  is  sometimes  convenient  tO'  call  by  a 
common  name.  In  the  same  way  we  find  it  convenient  to 
group  together  as  democracies  the  polities  of  ancient  Athens 
and  of  the  United  States.  This  sets  them  apart  for  certain 
purposes  from  certain  other  constitutions  but  implies  no 
recognition  of  either  genetic  or  psychological  affinity.  But 
even  where  genuine  likeness  has  been  achieved  we  find  di- 
vergence setting  in  after  convergence,  as  in  the  case  of 
polyandry. 

Thus  neither  the  examples  of  independent  evolution  from 
like  causes  nor  those  of  convergent  evolution  from  unlike 
causes  establish  an  innate  law  of  social  progress.  One  fact, 
however,  encountered  at  every  stage  and  in  every  phase  of 
society,  by  itself  lays  the  axe  to  the  root  of  any  theory  of 
historical  laws — the  extensive  occurrence  of  diffusion. 
Creating  nothing,  this  factor  nevertheless  makes  all  other 
agencies  taper  almost  into  nothingness  beside  it  in  its  effect 
on  the  total  growth  of  human  civilization.  An  explanation 
of  the  ultimate  origin  of  the  Omaha  sib  would  account  for 
one  sib  organization ;  transmission  accounts  for  that  organi- 
zation among  a  dozen  tribes  or  more.  Diffusion  not  merely 
extends  the  range  of  a  feature,  but  in  so  doing  it  is  able 
to  level  the  differences  of  race,  geographical  environment, 
and  economic  status  that  are  popularly  assumed  as  potent 
instrumentalities  in  cultural  evolution.  Through  diffusion 
the  Chinese  come  to  share  Western  notions  of  government ; 
through  diffusion  the  Southern  Plains  Indians  come  to 
share  with  the  Iroquois  of  the  Woodlands  a  type  of  sib 
that  distinguishes  them  from  their  fellow-Siouans  living 
under  the  same  geographical  conditions;  through  diffusion 


CONCLUSION  435 

fishermen,  reindeer  nomads,  and  tillers  of  the  soil  come  to 
entertain  the  identical  conception  of  feminine  disabilities. 
Any  conceivable  tendency  of  human  society  to  pursue  a 
fixed  sequence  of  stages  must  be  completely  veiled  by  the 
incessant  tendency  to  borrow^ing  and  thus  becomes  an  un- 
knowable noumenon  that  is  scientifically  worthless. 
Strangely  enough,  it  was  a  jurist  who  clearly  recognized 
this  fact  at  a  time  when  anthropologists  were  still  chasing 
the  will-o'-the-wisp  of  historical  laws ;  and  Maitland's  mem- 
orable words  in  Domesday  Book  and  Beyond  may  well  be 
quoted  in  full :  "Even  had  our  anthropologists  at  their  com- 
mand material  that  would  justify  them  in  prescribing  that 
every  independent  portion  of  mankind  must,  if  it  is  to  move 
at  all,  move  through  one  fated  series  of  stages  which  may 
be  designated  as  Stage  A,  Stage  B,  Stage  C,  and  so  forth, 
we  still  should  have  to  face  the  fact  that  the  rapidly  pro- 
gressive groups  have  been  just  those  which  have  not  been 
independent,  which  have  not  worked  out  their  own  salva- 
tion, but  have  appropriated  alien  ideas  and  have  thus  been 
enabled,  for  anything  that  we  can  tell,  to  leap  from  Stage 
A  to  Stage  X  without  passing  through  any  intermediate 
stages.  Our  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors  did  not  arrive  at  the 
alphabet  or  at  the  Nicene  Creed,  by  traversing  a  long  series 
of  'stages' ;  they  leapt  to  the  one  and  to  the  other."  Pres- 
ent ethnographical  knowledge  warrants  us  in  extending 
Maitland's  argument ;  we  know  that  the  relatively  stationary 
no  less  than  the  relatively  progressive  peoples  have  evolved 
their  culture  through  contact  with  alien  ideas,  and  that  ac- 
cordingly the  conditions  for  the  operation  of  social  laws 
among  independent  peoples  nowhere  exist.  By  all  means  let 
us  register  such  sequences  as  may  be  found  to  recur  in 
separated  regions,  but  let  us  not  dignify  these  strictly  lim- 
ited and  sometimes  trivial  relations,  such  as  that  between 
polyandry  and  a  paucity  of  women,  by  the  pretentious  title 
of  historical  laws. 

To  recognize  the  complexity  and  singularity  of  cultural 


436  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

phenomena,  mainly  as  a  consequence  of  diffusion,  is  then 
to  abandon  that  quest  of  short-hand  formulas  prescribed 
by  Professor  Pearson,  and  it  will  be  abandoned  not  from 
any  foolish  disdain  for  a  simplification  of  facts  but  because 
we  prefer  to  have  the  facts  unsimplified  than  a  simple  state- 
ment that  fails  to  correspond  with  them.  The  evolutionary 
views  until  recently  current  among  anthropologists  are  of 
the  category  of  those  'laws'  denounced  by  Sir  Henry 
Maine  when  in  1861  he  wrote  as  follows:  "Theories,  plaus- 
ible and  comprehensive,  but  absolutely  unverified,  .  .  .  en- 
joy a  universal  preference  over  sober  research  into  the 
primitive  history  of  society  and  law."  The  period  has 
come  for  eschewing  the  all-embracing  and  baseless  theories 
of  yore  and  to  settle  down  to  that  sober  historical  research 
involved  in  the  intensive  study  of  specific  regions. 

Must  we,  then,  resign  all  hope  of  rising  from  a  contem- 
plation of  unique  series  of  events  to  an  interpretation  ?  By 
no  means.  First  of  all  the  renunciation  of  historical  laws 
does  not  imply  the  renunciation  of  uniformities  independent 
of  the  time  factor  and  veritably  inherent  in  the  essence  of 
social  existence.  The  universality  of  borrowing  is  itself 
a  generalization  of  this  type,  as  is  the  implied  aversion  from 
or  inability  for  creative  effort,  which  in  turn  is  correlated 
with  the  persistence  of  cultural  features  once  established. 
Secondly,  it  is  precisely  the  singular  combination  of  traits 
forming  the  context  or  past  history  of  a  given  feature  that, 
in  conjunction  with  such  general  sociological  principles  as 
these,  furnishes  an  interpretation  of  its  meaning,  as  nothing 
else  ivhatsocvcr  can.  An  example  from  Maine,  that  cham- 
pion of  sane  historical  methods,  will  elucidate  the  point. 
Maine  was  confronted  with  the  fact  that  the  later  Roman 
republic  dispensed  with  the  death  penalty,  a  fact  which  had 
led  to  explanations  based  on  the  supposed  psychology  of 
the  Romans.  P>ut  Maine  discovered  that  at  the  time  in 
question  permanent  judicial  liodies  were  commissions  hold- 
ing a  delegated  authority   from   the   legislative  assembly, 


1 


CONCLUSION  437 

which  itself  lacked  power  of  inflicting  capital  punishment, 
hence  could  not  delegate  such  authority  to  one  of  its  crea- 
tures. The  interpretation  completely  clarifies  the  problem, 
carries  immediate  conviction,  and  at  once  exposes  the  spe- 
ciousness  of  any  type  of  explanation  not  founded  on  similar 
principles.  When  we  desire  to  understand  Masai  age- 
classes  or  Hidatsa  age-societies,  we  shall  do  well  to  follow 
not  Morgan  or  Schurtz,  but  Maine ;  to  saturate  ourselves 
with  the  spirit  and  history  of  Masai  and  Hidatsa  culture, 
respectively,  and  with  that  of  their  neighbors,  rather  than 
to  fly  for  aid  to  a  chimerical  law  of  social  evolution. 

The  principles  that  underlie  the  growth  of  social  organi- 
zation do  not  differ  from  the  principles  operative  in  culture 
generally.  It  was  once  believed  that  the  stages  which 
archaeological  research  reveals  in  western  Europe  must  be 
stages  mankind  have  everywhere  been  obliged  to  traverse. 
But  the  case  of  African  technology  suffices  to  disprove  the 
assumption:  the  Africans  did  not  pass  from  a  Stone  Age  to 
an  Age  of  Copper  and  Bronze  and  then  to  an  Iron  Age ; 
whether  through  autochthonous  advancement  or  through 
borrowing  from  Asiatic  sources,  they  passed  directly  from 
the  manufacture  of  stone  tools  to  the  manufacture  of  iron 
tools.  In  another  phase  of  material  civilization  the  Ameri- 
can natives,  except  in  Peru,  completely  failed  to  domesti- 
cate animals  for  economic  use,  clearly  proving  that,  as  in 
Yucatan  and  Mexico,  a  fairly  complex  cultural  structure  can 
be  reared  without  resting  on  domestication  as  one  of  its 
supports.  In  the  absence  of  an  inherent  law  of  evolution, 
then,  social  history  merely  conforms  to  the  facts  of  culture 
history  generally. 

There  is  nevertheless  an  important  difference  not  so  much 
objectively  as  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  appraising 
observer  between  the  history  of  material  culture  and  that 
of  social  organization.  In  the  former  there  are  periods  of 
retrogression  or  stagnation  alternating  with  eras  of  ad- 
vancement, and  the  very  use  of  these  words  implies  criteria 


438  PRIMITIVE    SOCIETY 

for  judging  progress.  Nor  is  it  difficult  to  fathom  their 
foundation.  Tools  are  contrivances  for  definite  practical 
purposes;  if  these  are  accomplished  more  expeditiously  and 
efficiently  by  one  set  of  tools,  then  that  set  is  better.  Hence 
it  is  a  purely  objective  judgment  that  metal  axes  are  su- 
perior to  those  of  stone.  So  economic  activity  has  for  its 
object  the  sustenance  of  human  existence,  and  when  the 
possibilities  for  supporting  life  are  enlarged,  as  by  the  do- 
mestication of  an  eatable  and  milkable  species,  we  are  justi- 
fied in  speaking  of  a  progressive  change.  But  in  the  sphere 
of  social  life  there  is  no  objective  criterion  for  grading  cul- 
tural phenomena.  The  foremost  philosophers  are  not 
agreed  as  to  the  ultimate  ideals  to  be  sought  through  social 
existence.  Within  a  century  Western  thought  and  action 
have  swung  from  one  pole  to  the  other,  from  the  extremes 
of  Manchesterian  individualism  to  the  extremes  of  state 
socialism ;  and  the  student's  evaluation  of,  say,  the  com- 
munistic bias  of  Eskimo  society  will  not  be  the  same  if  he 
is  a  disciple  of  Herbert  Spencer  as  it  would  be  if  he  were 
a  disciple  of  Prince  Kropotkin.  Democracy  has  become  a 
slogan  of  modern  times,  but  it  has  also  roused  the  impas- 
sioned protests  of  men  of  genius  and  of  reactionary  biolo- 
gists, some  of  whom  doubtless  cast  wistful  glances  in  the 
direction  of  Micronesia,  lamenting  the  decay  of  that  spirit 
of  loyalty  to  superior  rank  so  nobly  preserved  in  the  Mar- 
shall Islands.  Again,  the  unqualified  emancipation  of 
woman  may  be  the  only  goal  consistent  with  strict  individ- 
ualism, but  what  if  individualistic  aspirations  are  subordi- 
nated to  others,  say,  to  the  perpetuation  of  traditional  family 
ideals  or  to  eugenic  aims?  Here,  too,  judgment  of  primi- 
tive conceptions  must  depend  on  one's  subjective  reaction 
to  moot-problems  of  modern  speculation.  Even  where  the 
verdict  of  modern  society  tends  to  unanimity,  the  critical  in- 
vestigator cannot  accept  it  as  absolutely  valid.  It  is  not  ob- 
vious that  obligatory  monogamy  is  in  an  absolute  sense  the 
most  preferable  form  of  marriage,  least  of  all  when  it  is 


CONCLUSION  439 

tempered  with  a  system  of  libertinage  producing  something 
not  wholly  different  from  the  system  of  the  Masai. 

In  short,  the  appraisal  of  sociological  features  is  wholly 
different  from  that  of  technological  features  of  culture. 
The  latter  may  be  rated  according  to  the  closeness  with 
which  they  accomplish  known  ends ;  the  former  have  un- 
known ends  or  ends  whose  value  is  a  matter  of  philosophic 
doubt,  hence  they  can  be  graded  only  on  subjective  grounds 
and  must  scientifically  l>e  treated  as  incommensurable. 

Of  course  it  is  true  that  social  organizations  differ  in 
complexity,  but  that  dift'erence  fails  to  provide  a  criterion 
of  progress.  When  the  Andamanese  evolved  or  borrowed 
the  notion  of  segregating  bachelors  from  spinsters,  and 
both  from  married  couples,  their  social  culture  gained  in 
complexity,  but  it  is  not  easy  to  prove  that  it  experienced 
either  improvement  or  deterioration.  If  our  enlightened 
communities  coped  as  successfully  with,  say,  the  problem  of 
maintaining  order  as  ruder  peoples  in  a  simpler  environ- 
ment, then  it  might  be  conceded  that  our  complex  adminis- 
trative machinery  represents  an  intellectual  advance.  But 
the  condition  is  contrary  to  fact,  and  our  cumbersome 
method  of  preserving  the  peace  and  the  more  elegant  solu- 
tion of  the  same  problem  in  simpler  circumstances  remain 
incommensurable. 

When  from  definite  customs  and  institutions  we  turn  to 
the  dynamics  of  social  history,  the  result  is  again  the  im- 
possibility of  grading  cultures,  but  for  a  different  reason. 
Institutions  are  generally  different  and  not  comparable ; 
processes  are  not  only  comparable  but  identical  in  the  sim- 
pler and  the  higher  civilizations.  Thus  we  find  the  co- 
operative motive  and  the  need  for  congenial  companionship 
incarnated  in  a  variety  of  forms  among  primitive  peoples 
and  at  times  even  simulating  the  semblance  of  quite  modern 
institutions,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Samoan  trade  unions.  As 
an  invariable  component  of  primitive  life  we  further  en- 
counter the   eternal   striving   for  prestige,    which    is   thus 


440  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

clearly  a  characteristic  of  all  social  aggregates.  The  pea- 
cock theory  of  primitive  man  does  away  with  that  shopworn 
commonplace  that  primitive  society  wholly  merges  the  in- 
dividual in  his  group.  It  is  true  that  at  bottom  it  despises 
individuality,  for  it  prizes  variation  only  in  a  direction  it 
has  predetermined  and  conformity  to  its  standards  is  the 
price  exacted  for  recognition.  But  in  this  respect  primitive 
and  civilized  society  coincide  in  principle,  however  they  may 
differ  in  detail.  History  records  a  transfer  of  power  from 
one  mystically  sanctified  source  of  authority  to  another, 
from  a  church  to  a  book,  from  a  book  to  a  state,  or  to  an 
intangible  public  opinion.  But  with  unfailing  tenacity  every 
society  from  the  simplest  to  the  most  complex  has  adhered 
to  the  principle  that  the  one  unpardonable  sin  consists  in 
setting  up  one's  private  judgment  against  the  recognized 
social  authority,  in  perpetrating  an  infraction  of  tribal 
taboos.  When,  therefore,  Sir  Henry  Maine  points  out  the 
growing  importance  of  contractual  instead  of  status  rela- 
tions in  modern  society,  his  argument  is  of  formal  rather 
than  of  substantial  significance  for  the  history  of  individual 
freedom.  In  the  disposal  of  his  property  an  Ewe  is  not  so 
free  as  an  American,  in  other  regards  he  is  freer ;  and  both 
are  hedged  about  by  a  set  of  conventions  whose  breach  may 
subject  them  to  indignity,  ostracism,  and  death.  Neither 
morphologically  nor  dynamically  can  social  life  be  said  to 
have  progressed  from  a  stage  of  savagery  to  a  stage  of  en- 
lightenment. 

The  belief  in  social  progress  was  a  natural  accompani- 
ment of  the  belief  in  historical  laws,  especially  when  tinged 
with  the  evolutionary  optimism  of  the  'seventies  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  If  inherent  necessity  urges  all  societies 
along  a  fixed  path,  metaphysicians  may  still  dispute  whether 
the  underlying  force  be  divine  or  diabolic,  but  there  can  at 
least  be  no  doubt  as  to  which  community  is  retarded  and 
which  accelerated  in  its  movement  toward  the  appointed 
goal.     But  no  such  necessity  or  design  appears  from  the 


CONCLUSION  441 

study  of  culture  history.  Cultures  develop  mainly  through 
the  borrowings  due  to  chance  contact.  Our  own  civilization 
is  even  more  largely  than  the  rest  a  complex  of  borrowed 
traits.  The  singular  order  of  events  by  which  it  has  come 
into  being  provides  no  schedule  for  the  itinerary  of  alien 
cultures.  Hence  the  specious  plea  that  a  given  people  must 
pass  through  such  or  such  a  stage  in  our  history  before  at- 
taining this  or  that  destination  can  no  longer  be  sustained. 
The  student  who  has  mastered  Maitland's  argument  will 
recognize  the  historical  and  ethnologic  absurdity  of  this 
solemn  nonsense.  In  prescribing  for  other  peoples  a  social 
programme  we  must  always  act  on  subjective  grounds ;  but 
at  least  we  can  act  unfettered  by  the  pusillanimous  fear  of 
transgressing  a  mock-law  of  social  evolution. 

Nor  are  the  facts  of  culture  history  without  bearing  on 
the  adjustment  of  our  own  future.  To  that  planless  hodge- 
podge, that  thing  of  shreds  and  patches  called  civilization, 
its  historian  can  no  longer  yield  superstitious  reverence.  He 
will  realize  better  than  others  the  obstacles  to  infusing  de- 
sign into  the  amorphous  product ;  but  in  thought  at  least  he 
will  not  grovel  l>efore  it  in  fatalistic  acquiescence  but  dream 
of  a  rational  scheme  to  supplant  the  chaotic  jumble. 


END 


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A.  M.  N.  H. 

A.M.N.H.,  Bull. 

A.M.N.H.,  Hd. 

A.M.N.H.,  Mem. 

B.A.E. 

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J.A.L 

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U.  Gal. 

Z.  vgl.  R. 


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Bulletin  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
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Handbook  Series  of  the  American  Museum  of 
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Memoirs  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natu- 
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Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  (American) 
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Bulletin,  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology 

Memoir,  Canada  Department  of  Mines,  Geo- 
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Museum  Bulletin,  Canada  Department  of 
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Summary  Report  of  the  Geological  Survey, 
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Anthropological  Series,  Field  Museum  of 
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Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore 

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1892.     The  Aborigines  of  New  South  Wales.     Sydney. 
Frazer,  J.  G. 

1910.  Totemism  and   Exogamy.     4  vols.     London. 

1911.  The  Golden  Bough.     3d.  ed.,  pt.  n.     London. 

1912.  Psyche's  Task.     London. 
Franciscan  Fathers,  The. 

1910.     An  Ethnologic  Dictionary  of  the  Navaho  Language.     St. 
Michaels. 
Freire-Marreco,  B. 

1914.  Tewa  Kinship  Terms   from  the   Pueblo  of  Hano.  Amer. 

Anth.,  XVI,  269-287. 
Freud,  S. 

1912,  1913.   Ueber  einige  Uebereinstimmungen  im  Seelenleben  der 

Wilden  und  der  Neurotiker.     Imago,   17-33;  213-227; 
1913,  1-21,  357-408. 
Frobenius,  L. 

1913.  Und  Afrika  Sprach.    i.     Berlin-Charlottenburg. 
GiflFord,  E.  W. 

1916.  Miwok  Moieties.     U.  Cal.,  xii,  139-194. 

1918.     Clans  and  Moieties  in  Southern  California.     U.  Cal.,  xiv, 
155-219. 
Goddard,  P.  E. 

1903.     Life  and  Culture  of  the  Hupa,  U.  Cal.,  i,  1-88. 

1913.     Indians  of  the  Southwest.     A.M.N.H.,  Hd. 
Goldenweiser,  A.  A. 

1910.     Totemism ;  an  Analytical  Study.     J.A.F.L.,  xxiii,  179-293. 

1912.  On  Iroquois  Work.     Can.  Sum.  Rept.,  464-475. 

1913.  On  Iroquois  Work.     Can.   Sum.  Rept.,  365-373. 

1918.     Form  and  Content  in  Totemism.    Amer.  Anth.  xx,  280-295. 
Gurdon,  P.  R.  T. 

1907.     The  Khasis.     London. 
Hahn,  Ed. 

1905.     Das    Alter    der    wirtschaftlichen    Kultur   der    Menschheit. 
Heidelberg. 
Hartland,  E.  S. 

1917.  Matrilineal    Kinship    and    the    Question    of    its    Priority. 

Amer.  Anth.  Mem.,  iv,  1-90. 
Hawkes,  E.  W. 

1913.     The    "Inviting-in"   Feast   of   the   Alaskan    Eskimo.     Can. 

Geol.  Sur.,  Mem.  45. 
1916.    The  Labrador  Eskimo.     Can.  Geol.  Sur.,  Mem.  91. 
Hearne,  S. 

1795-     Journey  from  Prince  of  Wales  Fort  in  Hudson's  Bay  to 
the  Northern  Ocean.     London. 
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1915.  Morals  in  Evolution.     London. 
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1913.     The  Fijian  Custom  of  Tauvu.    J.A.I.,  xliii,  101-108. 
1915.     Chieftainship  and  the  Sister's  Son  in  the  Pacific.     Amer- 
Anth.,  631-646. 


446  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Hodson,  T.  C. 

191 1.    The  Naga  Tribes  of  Manipur.     London. 
Hollis,  A.  C. 

1905.     The  Masai.     Oxford. 

1909.  The  Nandi.     Oxford. 
Howitt,  A.  W. 

1904.    The  Native  Tribes  of  South-east  Australia.     London. 
Jesuit  Relations  and  Allied  Documents.     1896-1901.     Edited  by  Reuben 

Gold  Thwaites.     71  volumes. 
Jochelson,  W. 

1908.     Material  Culture  and  Social  Organization  of  the  Koryak. 
A.M.N.H.,  Mem.  x. 

1910.  The  Yukaghir  and  the  Yukaghirized  Tungus.     A.M.N.H., 

Mem.,  XIII. 
Junod,  H.  A. 

1912.     The  Life  of  a  South  African  Tribe.    2  vols.    Neuchatel. 
Keysser,  Ch. 

191 1.  Aus  dem   Leben  der  Kaileute,  in  Neuhauss,  R.,  Deutsch 

Neu-Guinea,  in.     Berlin.     1-242. 
Kingsley,  M.  H. 

1904.     Travels  in  West  Africa.     London. 
Kohler,  J.     1897. 

Urgeschichte  der  Ehe.    Z.  vgl.     R.     xii. 
Kramer,  A. 

1902.     Die  Samoa-Inseln.     Stuttgart. 
Krause,  A. 

1885.     Die  Tlinkit-Indianer.     Jena. 
Kroeber,  A.  L. 

1904.     The   Arapaho.     A.M.N.H.,   Bull.,   xviii,   1-229,  279-454. 

1908.     Ethnology  of  the  Gros  Ventre,  A.M.N.H.,  i,  145-281. 

1917  (a).  Zuni  Kin  and  Clan.     A.M.N.H.,  xviii,  39-205. 

1917  (b).  The  Tribes   of  the   Pacific   Coast  of   North  America. 
XIX  International  Congress  of  Americanists.    385-401. 
Lang,  Andrew. 

1885.     Custom  and  Myth     London. 
Laufer,  B. 

1900.     Preliminary    Notes    on    Explorations    among   the    Amoor 
Tribes.     Amer.  Anth.,  297-338. 

1917.     The  Beginnings  of  Porcelain  in  China.     Field  Mus.,  xv, 

79-177- 
Lehner,  St. 

191 1.  Bukaua,  in   Neuhauss,   Deutsch   Neu-Guinea,   iii,  397-485. 

Berlin. 
Lowie,  R.  H. 

1912.  Social  Life  of  the  Crow  Indians.     A.M.N.H.,  ix,  179-248. 

1913.  Societies    of    the    Crow,    Hidatsa    and    Mandan    Indians. 

A.M.N.H.,  XI.  145-358. 

1915.  Exogamy  and  the  Classificatory  System  of  Relationship. 

Amcr.  Anth.,  223-23Q._ 

1916.  Plains  Indian  Age-Socictics  :    Historical  and  Comparative 

Summary.     A.M.N.H.,  xi.  877-984. 
1917  (a).  Notes  on  the  Social  Organizations  and  Customs  of  the 
Mandan,  Hidatsa  and  Crow  Indians.     A.M.N.H.,  xxi, 
1-99. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  447 

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1919  (b).  Family  and  Sib.     Amer.  Anth.,  28-40. 
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1858.     A  Compendium  of  Kafir  Laws  and  Customs.     Printed  for 
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Maine,  H. 

1861.     Ancient  Law.     London. 
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1913-     The  Family  among  the  Australian  Aborigines.     London. 
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1883.     On  the  Aboriginal   Inhabitants  of  the  Andaman  Islands. 
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1912.     Anthropology.     Home  University  Library, 
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1892.     A  History  of  Peru.     Chicago. 
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1905.    Die  Inlandstamme  der  Malayischen  Halbinsel.    Jena. 
Merker,  M. 

1910.  Die  Masai.     Berlin. 
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1907.    The  Cheyenne  Indians.    Amer.  Anth.,  Mem.,  i,  361-442. 
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1871.      Systems    of    Consanguinity   and    Affinity   of   the   Human 
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1877.     Ancient  Society.     New  York. 
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1899.     The  Eskimo  about  Bering  Strait.     18  B.A.E.,  19-518. 
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1907.     Dreissig  Jahre  in  der  Siidsee.     Stuttgart. 
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1916.    Avoidance  in  Melanesia.     T.A.F.L.,  xxix,  282-292 
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1895.    Los  Chibchas  antes  de  la  conquista  espafiola.    Bogota. 
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448  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

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1906.  The    Todas.     London. 

1914  (a).  Kinship  and  Social  Organization.     London. 

1914  (b).  The   History  of    Melanesian   Society.     2  vols.     Cam- 

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1915.     "Marriage" ;  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics.    VIII. 
Rockhill,  W.  W. 

1891.     The  Land  of  the  Lamas.     New  York. 
Roscoe,  J. 

1907.  The    Bahima :     a   Cow   Tribe   of   Enkole   in   the  Uganda 

Protectorate,  J.A.L,  93-118. 
1911.     The  Baganda.     London. 
Roth,  W.  E. 

1903.     North  Queensland  Ethnography.     Bulletin  5.     Brisbane. 

1906.  North  Queensland  Ethnography.     Bulletin  8.     Brisbane. 
1915.     An    Inquiry    into    the    Animism    and    Folk-Lore    of    the 

Guiana  Indians.     30  B.A.E.,  117-384. 
Routledge,  W.  S.  and  K. 

1910.  With  a  Prehistoric  People.     London. 
Russell,  F. 

1908.  The  Pima  Indians.     26  B.A.E.,  17-389. 
Sapir,  E. 

191 1.  Some  Aspects  of  Nootka  Language  and  Culture.     Amer. 

Anth.,  15-28. 
1913.     A  Girl's  Puberty  Ceremonial  among  the  Nootka  Indians. 

Transactions,  Royal  Society  of  Canada,  3d  series,  67-80. 
1915.     The  Social  Organization  of  the  West  Coast  Tribes.     Ibid., 

355-374- 
Schinz,  W. 

1891.     Deutsch-Siidwest-Afrika.     Oldenburg. 
Schmidt,  M. 

1905.  Indianerstudien  in  Zentralbrasilien.     Berlin. 
Schultze,  L. 

1907.  Aus  Namaland  und  Kalahari.     Jena. 
Schurtz,  H. 

1902.     Altersklassen  und  Mannerbiinde.     Berlin. 
Seligmann,  C.  G.  and  B.  Z. 

1911.     The  Veddas.     Cambridge. 
Skeat,  W.  W.,  and  Blagden,  CO. 

1906.  Pagan  Races  of  the  Malay  Peninsula.    2  vols.     London. 
Skinner,  A. 

1913.     Social    Life    and    Ceremonial    Bundles    of   the    Menomini 
Indians.     A.M.N.H.,  xiii,  1-165. 
Speck,  F.  G. 

1909.  Ethnology    of    the    Yuchi.     University    of    Pennsylvania, 

Anthropological    Publications   of    the   University   Mu- 
seum, I,  1-154. 

1915  (a).  Family  Hunting  Territories.    Can.  Geol.  Sur.  Mem.,  70. 
1915   (b).  The  Family  Hunting  Band  as  the  Basis  of  Algonkian 

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 


449 


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1899.     The  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia.     London. 

1904.    The  Northern  Tribes  of  Central  Australia.    London. 
Spieth,  J. 

1906.     Die  Ewe-Stamme.     Berlin. 
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1908.     The  Nez  Perce  Indians.     Amer.  Anth.,  Mem.,  11,  165-274. 

1917.     Ancient    Civilizations    of    Mexico    and    Central    America. 
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1908.  The  Mikirs.     London. 
Stair,  J.  B. 

1897.     Old  Samoa.     Oxford. 
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1909.  The  Zuiii  Indians.    23  B.A.E. 
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1905  (a).  Contributions  to  the  Ethnology  of  the  Haida,  A.M.N.H,. 

Mem.,  VIII. 
1905  (b).   The  Social  Organization  of  American  Tribes.    Amer. 

Anth.,  663-673. 
1906.     A  Reconstruction  of  the  Theory  of  Social  Organization. 

Boas  Anniversary  Volume.     166-178.     New  York. 
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the  Tlingit  Indians.     26  B.A.E.,  391-485. 

191 1.  Indian  Tribes  of  the  Lower  Mississippi  Valley.     B.A.E., 

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1912.  A   Foreword   on   the   Social   Organization   of  the  Creek 
Indians.     Amer.  Anth.,  593-599. 


Tafel,  A 

1914 
Talbot,  P. 
1912, 


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1918 
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1900. 


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A. 


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1909.  The  Shuswap.     Ibid.,  iv. 
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1914.    The  Ammassalik  Eskimo.     Copenhagen. 
Theal.  G.  Mc. 

1907.  History  and  Ethnography  of  Africa  South  of  the  Zam- 

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1908.  The  Fijians.    London. 
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1910.  Das    Rechtsleben   der   Eingeborenen   der   deutschen   Stid- 

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Torday,  E.,  and  Joyce.  T.  A. 

1910.    Les  Bushongo.    Brussels. 


450  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETY 

Tregear,  E. 

1904.    The  Maori  Race.    Wangani. 
Turner,  B. 

1884.     Samoa.     London. 
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1889.  On  a  Method  of  Investigating  the  Development  of  In- 
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1896.  The    Matriarchal    Family    System.      Nineteenth    Century, 

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1915.     The  Northwest  Amazons.     New  York. 
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1917.     Agriculture  of  the  Hidatsa  Indians.    University  of  Minne- 
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1911.     The    Social    Life    of    the    Blackfoot    Indians.     AM.N.H., 
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Die  Jabim,  in  Neuhauss,  Deutsch  Neu-Guinea,  iii,  289-394. 


INDEX 


Adolescent  ceremonies,  for  girls, 

319- 

Adoption,  Andaman  Islands  and 
Torres  Straits,  167 ;  of  chil- 
dren, T] ;  part  played  in  sib 
membership,    115-116. 

Adultery,  punishment  for,  415, 
424. 

Age-classes,  313-319;  and  four 
class  system,  269 ;  Cunow  on, 
257 ;  Hidatsa,  293,  295 ;  Ma- 
sai, 271,  273,  274-275,  293-294; 
Omaha,  321-322;  Plains  In- 
dian, 334-335 ;  in  Schurtz's 
scheme,  298-299,  302,  314-319; 
secondary,  322,  329,  332. 

Age,  factor,  in  African  and  Amer- 
ican tribes,  315 ;  factor,  in 
Australian  organization,  264, 
315;  factor,  Dakota  com- 
rades, 320;  factor,  within  the 
family,  314;  factor.  Plains 
military  societies,  322 ;  grad- 
ing by,  Andaman  Islands, 
259 ;  purchase  and  rank,  in 
Plains    Indian    societies,    325- 

329. 

Age-grades,  Australian  class  sys- 
tem, 269-270 ;   Hidatsa,  292. 

Age-groupings,  Plains  societies, 
324-325. 

Age-societies,  Plains  Indian,  324- 
335 ;  interpreted,  334f .  See 
also  Age-classes. 

Agriculture,  and  horticulture,  193, 
194,  197;  division  of  labor  in, 
75 ;  woman's  share  in,  160, 
179,   183-184,  218. 

Alliances,  between  North  Ameri- 
can tribes,  388. 

Animal  names,  for  sibs.  Admiralty 
Islands,  120 ;  Buin,  120,  137- 
138;  Iroquois,  143-144;  Win- 
nebago, 118;  Northwest  Coast 
moieties,  128. 

45 


Aristocracy,  basis  among  Plains 
Indians,  340-341  ;  basis.  New 
Zealand,  341  ;  in  primitive  so- 
ciety, 355.     See  Caste. 

Associations,  257-337,  394-396;  in 
Andamans,  258  seq. ;  coexist- 
ing with  sibs  among  Crow, 
427  seq. ;  defined,  257 ;  his- 
torical survey  of,  257-258; 
rarity  in  Asia,  310;  relation 
to  political  organization,  395f. ; 
relation  to  sibs,  257,  262 ; 
theory  of,  297-337 ;  varieties 
of.  319-323 ;  women's,  Hidat- 
sa, 294-295  ;  women's,  in  North 
America,  305. 

Autocracy,  African  rulers,  375, 
376;  Natchez,  383. 

Avoidance,  Frazer's  interpreta- 
tion of  rules  of,  91,  93,  97; 
parent-in-law,  Tylor's  inter- 
pretation of,  94-97;  psycho- 
analytic motivation  in  parent- 
in-law  taboo,  91-94. 

Avunculate,  248;  defined,  81-84; 
and  cross-cousin  marriage, 
172;  examples  of  usages  con- 
nected with,  82-83  ;  and  matri- 
lineal  and  patrilineal  descent, 
'^T^-'^l 2>  \  in  Oceania,  179;  and 
privileged  familiarity,  100. 

Bachelors'  kraals,  Masai,  273- 
274. 

Bachelors  segregated,  Andamans, 
259.  3i6f. ;  Australia,  264; 
Bororo,  50 ;  Masai,  50,  271 ; 
North  America,  317;  Zulu, 
316,  374- 

Baden-Powell,  on  joint  owner- 
ship of  land  in  India,  232f. 

Bandelier,  on  Mexican  land  ten- 
ure,  2l8f. 

Betrothals,    infant,    18,   52. 


452 


PRIMITIVE  SOCIETY 


Bilateral    family,   universality   of, 

78. 
Bilateral  kin  group,  64-68. 
Blood  feuds,  368,  400,  404,  414. 
Blood-kin,      prohibition      against 

marriage  of,  15-16. 
Blood-money,  404. 
Boas,  on  totemism,   139,   145 ;   on 

Tripartite      organization      of 

Northwest   Coast   tribes,   136- 

^37- 

Borough-English.  See  Junior- 
right. 

Bravery,  influence  on  prestige, 
Bagobo,  342;  Masai,  341-342; 
New  Zealand,  341 ;  Plains  In- 
_  dian,  339-342. 

Bride-price,  and  dowry,  in  North 
America,  21-22;  Kai,  20;  in- 
fluence of  patrilocal  and  mat- 
rilocal  residence,  72-73 ;  in- 
fluence of  practice  of  poly- 
gamy, 42;  Thonga,  20-21. 

Bride-purchase,  in  Siberia,  178. 

Brother-in-law  and  sister-in-law, 
privileged  familiarity  between, 
100,    lOI. 

Brother-sister  marriage,  15. 

Brown,  on  Australian  family,  66- 
67 ;  on  Australian  kinship 
usages,  80-81  ;  on  Australian 
four-class  system,  268. 

Bull-roarer,  265-266,  311-313;  its 
equivalent,  280. 

Bundles,  ceremonial,  Hidatsa,  295, 
.305. 

Burial  customs,  influence  on  rules 
of  inheritance,  244. 

Caste,  345-355 ;  affects  prestige, 
341,  345  seq.,  353  seq.,  362- 
367 ;  affects  property  rights, 
234 ;  system,  Marshall  Islands, 
22T,  365-366. 

Caste,  system,  345-355 ;  affects 
prestige,  341,  345  seq.,  353  seq., 
362-367 ;  affects  property 
rights,  234;  Africa.  349-351; 
Maori,  345-347;  Marshall  Is- 
lands, 227,  365-366;  Natchez, 
351-353;  New  Zealand,  341; 
Northwest  Coa.st,  353-355; 
Polynesia,  345 ;  Samoa,  347- 
349- 


Ceremonial,  chambers,  Pueblo, 
308;  functions  of  sibs,  119-121, 
127;  life,  Hidatsa,  paternal 
kin  in,  65;  objects,  owner- 
ship and  transfer  of,  239;  or- 
ganizations, Zuni,  281-282; 
paraphernalia,  272,  279,  290 ; 
privileges,  individual  owner- 
ship of,  22;] ;  privileges,  trans- 
fer and  ownership  of,  239-243. 
Ceremonies,  for  absolution  from 
taboos,  Andamans,  260-261 ; 
women's  position  in,  197. 
Chattels,  laws  relating  to,  233-235. 
Chiefs,  Africa,  221,  350,  370  seq., 
423,  424 ;  Algonkian,  384 ;  Aus- 
tralia, 360;  California,  342- 
343;  404;  Crow,  384-385; 
Dieri,  260;  Marshall  Islands, 
365-366 ;  Melanesia,  367 ; 
Natchez,  351-353,  383;  New 
Guinea,  369;  New  Zealand, 
228,  362-363,  345-346;  North 
America,  384-387 ;  northwest 
coast  of  N.  America,  353, 
383-384 ;  Oceania.  225-229, 
345  seq.,  362  seq. ;  Plains  In- 
dian, 339 ;  Polynesia,  225,  345  ; 
Samoa,  347.  363-365;  Solo- 
mon Islands,  367-369. 
Chieftaincy,    succession   of,    Buin, 

121. 
Children,  adoption  of,  78;  indi- 
vidual ownership  of  property, 
233-234 ;  relations  with  ma- 
ternal uncle,  82-83 ;  relations 
with  paternal  kin,  83-84 ; 
status,  in  matrilocal  house- 
hold, 71,  ^2;  status,  in  matri- 
local and  patrilocal  residence, 
159;  status,  in  patrilocal 
household,  70,  71 ;  tendency  to 
stabilize  marriage,  69. 
Chronology,  family  and  sib,  147- 
150,  165;  levirate,  sororate 
and  sib,  163-164 ;  matrilineal 
and  patrilineal  stages  of  cul- 
ture, 169-183. 
Civil  law,  Kafir,  422-424;  paucity 

of,  397- 
Circumcision,      Masai      initiation, 

271-273. 
Clans,  defined,   in.     See  mother- 
sibs. 


INDEX 


453 


Classes,  distinction  of,  by  primi- 
tive man,  338 ;  social,  Africa, 
349-351 ;  New  Zealand,  346- 
347 ;  Northwest  Coast,  353- 
354;   Samoa,  347-349- 

Class  system,  Australia,  267-270. 

Clubs,  graded,  Banks  Islands,  276- 
277;  graded,  Oceania,  316; 
military.  Crow,  288-291  ;  in 
Schurtz's  scheme,  300 ;  secu- 
lar. Crow,  287-288.  See  also 
Men's  Clubs,  Secret  Societies, 
Men's  Tribal  Society. 

Collateral    inheritance,    249f.,    371. 

Collective  ownership,  of  property, 
Hidatsa,  218. 

Collective  responsibility,  for  crime, 
399-400;  Africa,  418,  422;  in 
Australia,  407;  Ifugao,  411- 
412. 

Communal  hunting.  Plains  In- 
dians, 385. 

Communism,  primitive,  205-210; 
based  on  communal  solidarity, 
208;  coexistent  with  indi- 
vidualism, 209f.,  216,  233;  con- 
nected with  food,  210 ;  distin- 
guished from  joint  owner- 
ship, 206;  distinguished  from 
hospitality  and  moral  obliga- 
tions,   207 ;    as    to    land,    229- 

233- 
Compensation,  for  crimes,  403-404, 

423..  . 

Composition.     See  weregild. 

Comrades,  Dakota,  a  form  of  as- 
sociation,  320. 

Consanguine  family,  56-58. 

Convergence,  433f. ;  junior  right 
a  case  of,  254. 

Convergent  evolution,  254;  Sibe- 
rian parent-in-law  taboo,  103- 
104 ;  in  teknonymy,  109 ;  in 
totemism,   140-141. 

Council,  governing,  Africa,  372, 
376f. ;  America,  386f. ;  Aus- 
tralia, 358,  359f. ;  Central  Aus- 
tralia, 360-361  ;  as  court,  421 ; 
Dieri,  359-360  ;  Ewe,  zn  \  Iro- 
quois, 388 ;  Natchez,  383 ; 
Northwest  Coast,  384;  Omaha, 
416 ;     Samoa,     363 ;     Thonga, 

Court    etiquette.    Ewe,    zn  \    pro- 


cedure, 420  seq. ;  Thonga,  373. 

Courts,  Uganda,  424-425. 

Cousins,  classification  into  paral- 
lel and  cross,  134. 

Cousin-marriage,   15-18. 

Couvade,   174-175. 

Crests,  Northwest  Coast  tribes, 
128-129. 

Crimes,  Australian  methods  of 
dealing  with,  406-409 ;  collec- 
tive responsibility  for,  399- 
400 ;  expiation  for,  407-408 ; 
recognized,  in  Australia,  408- 
409 ;  recognized  by  Omaha, 
416;  and  torts,  398,  401  seq., 
422;  voluntary  and  involun- 
tary, 401-402. 

Criminal  law,  Kafir,  422-424 ;  mo- 
tive,  400-402. 

Cross-cousin,  defined,  26;  mar- 
riage, distribution,  26-29 ;  mar- 
riage, discussion  of  origin  of, 
28-31 ;  marriage,  and  the  avun- 
culate,  172;  marriage,  in- 
fluence on  classification  of 
kinship,  31-32;  marriage,  and 
sib  exogamy,  148;  privileged 
familiarity  between,  loi. 

Cunow,  on  age-classes,  257,  266 ; 
on  Australian  class  system, 
268-270;  on  Hawaiian  kinship 
systems,  58-59. 

Dance  organizations,  Omaha,  321- 

Z22. 

Democracy,  East  African,  278; 
Masai,  351 ;  in  North  America, 
219-220,  338-339,  351,  383.  384; 
and  primitive  society,  389-390. 

Descent,  Khasi,  190;  Maori,  345- 
346;  matrilineal,  influence  on 
position  of  women,  189;  ma- 
trilineal and  patrilineal,  166- 
185 ;  Melanesian,  393-394 ; 
Plains  Indians,  124-125;  rules 
of,  177;  rules  of,  influence  on 
inheritance,  173,  247 ;  rules  of, 
sib  sj'stems  east  of  the  Miss- 
issippi, 123-124;  rules  of,  and 
transmission  of  property,  167- 
169. 

Despotism,  Africa,  224,  370,  373, 
ZTJ  seq. ;  Hawaii  and  Mar- 
shall  Islands,  227,   365f. 


454 


PRIMITIVE  SOCIETY 


Diffusion,  434! . ;  age-societies,  329  ; 
and  the  avunculate,  171-172;  of 
culture,  explanation  of  theory 
of,  8-13;  of  resemblances 
in  sib  systems  east  of  Mississ- 
ippi, 123-124;  importance  in 
all  problems,  302 ;  influence  on 
cultural  traits,  176;  influence 
on  elaboration  of  graded  se- 
ries of  societies,  329-333  ;.J""- 
ior-right  usage,  254;  levirate, 
sororate,  and  sib,  163-164; 
parent-in-law  taboos,  85-86, 
88-91,  93-94;  and  Schurtz's 
scheme,  302;  of  teknonymy, 
108. 

Divination,    406,   422. 

Divorce,  19,  68,  69,  71. 

Domestication,  of  animals,  a  mas- 
culine achievement,  75,  183- 
184,   194. 

Dual  organization,  and  Dakota 
kinship  terminology,  134.  135; 
defined,  118;  simplest  con- 
ceivable, 135 ;  Southwestern 
sib  system,  127. 

Economic,  basis  of  marriage,  64- 
66 ;  conditions,  influence  on 
matrilocal  or  patrilocal  resi- 
dence, 72,  TZ ;  interpretation, 
of  woman's  position,  193-201 ; 
interpretation,    criticised,    356. 

Elders'  class,  Austraha,  rule  of, 
359. 

Endogamy,  defined ;  tribes  having, 
16-17,  160. 

Endogamous,  groups,  30;  moie- 
ties,   132-133.   136. 

Environment,  examples  of  adap- 
tation  to,  8. 

Ethics,  and  law,  differences  be- 
tween. Plains  Indians,  207-208. 

Evidence,  402,  404-406. 

Evolutionary  doctrine,  influence 
on  theories  of  social  phenom- 
ena, 55-56. 

Exogamy,  effect  on  marriage  cus- 
toms, 148;  Blackfoot,  124; 
Crow,  113;  defined,  16;  and 
endogamy,  not  mutually  ex- 
clusive, examples,  17 ;  Gros 
Ventre,  125;  Hupa,  112;  Iro- 
quois,   113;    law    of,    1 1 3-1 14; 


and  lesser  and  greater  sibs, 
132;  Melanesia,  105;  Miwok, 
113;  and  the  sib  system,  114; 
in  sibs  east  of  Mississippi, 
123 ;  and  totemism,  141  ;  Zuni 
sibs,  127. 

Exogamous  groups,  Northwest 
Coast  tribes,  130;  quarters, 
Northwest  Coast  tribes,  129. 

Expiatory  combat,  407f. 

Familiarity,  privileged,  98-101. 

Family,  the,  63-77 ;  bilateral  char- 
acter of,  63-64,  III,  147;  in- 
dividual, a  social  unit,  66 ;  in- 
fluence of  avunculate  on,  82- 
83;  life,  influence  of  kinship 
usages  on,  81  ;  polygynous, 
44-45;  priority  of  the,  147-156; 
and  sib,  distinction  between, 
112-113;  unit,  looseness  of,  ( 

Fatherhood,  determination  of,  in 
fraternal  polyandry,  47-48. 

Father-sibs,  defined,  112;  devel- 
opment of,  in  Siberia,  178; 
exogamous,  118,  120,  136, 
176. 

Father's  sister,  social  relations 
with  nephew,  83. 

Feasting  societies,   Omaha,  321. 

Feuds,   Eskimo,  414;   Ifugao,  411. 

Fines,  409  seq.,  423,  402-403,  424. 

Four-class  system,  Australia,  267. 

Fraternities,  Zuiii  and  Hopi,  283- 
286,  336. 

Frazer,  on  the  levirate,  62;  on 
rules  of  avoidance,  91,  93,  97; 
on  social  behavior  of  rela- 
tives by  blood  and  marriage, 
loi  ;  on  teknonymy,  108;  on 
totemism,    141-142. 

Freire-Marreco,  on  Pueblo  family 
life.  71. 

Freud,  on  psycho-analytic  motiva- 
tion of  parent-in-law  taboos, 
91-94. 

Fruit  trees,  special  ownership  law 
in  Africa,  223 ;  in  Oceania, 
226. 

Genkalogies,  Polynesian,  346. 
Gentes,  deTined,   11 1.     See  father- 
sibs. 
Gerontocracy,    Australia,    359-360. 


"1 


INDEX 


455 


Ghost  organizations,  Banks  Is- 
lands,  278,   307-308,   363. 

iGifFord,  on  Mi  wok  cross-cousin 
marriage,  -28,  30-31  ;  Miwok 
kinship  terms,  38 ;  on  sib  sys- 
tems   of    CaHfornia,    128. 

Golden weiser,    on    totemism,    139- 

141,  143- 

Government,  Africa,  369-382  ;  Aus- 
tralia, 359-361  ;  democracy  and 
primitive  organizations,  389 
seq. :  Melanesia  and  New 
Guinea,  367-369  ;  North  Amer- 
ica, 383-389;  Polynesia  and 
Micronesia,  361-367- 

Grades,  of  age-series  explained, 
329  seq. ;  of  Masai  men,  271 ; 
of  Melanesian  club,  276  seq. ; 
Melanesian  and  Hidatsa  com- 
pared, 292f.  See  also  age- 
classes. 

Group,  marriage,  40,  49,  54,  61- 
62;  ownership  of  property, 
206. 

Guilds,  Cheyenne  women's,  305. 

Hartland,  on  priority  of  ma- 
tronymic  system,  171. 

Headman,  California  tribes,  342, 
343. 

Historical    method,    in    ethnology, 

4-7- 
Hobhouse,    on    bride-buymg    peo- 
ples,   26;    on    maternal-pater- 
nal descent,   180-182;  on  pas- 
toral life  and  woman's  status, 

193- 

Hollis,  on  East  African  sibs,  137. 

House  ownership,  Hopi  women. 
216-217. 

Hunting  territories,  joint  and  in- 
dividual ownership  of,  211- 
215;  owned  by  Hopi  sibs,  117. 

•In-Breeding,  primitive  repugnance 
for,  15-16. 

[Incest,  crime  in  Australia,  408; 
fundamental  social  law  pre- 
cluding, 105  ;  result  of  sophis- 
ticated civilization,  58 ;  uni- 
versal taboo  against,  15-16. 
Incorporeal  property,  235-243 ; 
Andamans,  235 ;  hereditary 
and  non-hereditary,  237,  239f . ; 


and  individual  ownership,  242 ; 
Koryak,  236 ;  Nootka,  237 ; 
Plains  Indians,  238  seq.; 
Torres  Straits,  236. 

Independent  development,  355, 
432 ;  Blackf  oot-Gros  Ventre 
sib  scheme,  126 ;  castes  in 
Polynesia  and  the  Northwest 
Coast,  355 ;  cross-cousin  mar- 
riage, 31  ;  examples  of,  in  va- 
rious phases  of  culture,  10-13; 
name  taboo,  89 ;  theory  ex- 
plained, 8-13. 

Individual  ownership,  of  chattels, 
233-234;  in  general,  205-210, 
233-  235,  243;  Hottentot,  215; 
incorporeal  property,  235  seq. ; 
in  India,  232f. ;  Kirgiz,  216; 
of  land,  Africa,  221-222;  Aus- 
tralia, 214:  Fiji,  226;  North- 
east Algonkians,  21  if.;  Torres 
Straits,  227;  Vedda,  214; 
Zuiii.  217. 

Industrial  occupation,  sexual  di- 
vision  of  labor  in,  75. 

Infanticide,  female,  46,  47-48;  in- 
fluence  on   polyandry,   46,   48. 

Inheritance,  243-255 ;  ceremonial 
privileges,  117;  chieftaincy, 
Solomon  Islands,  368;  collat- 
eral, 249-250;  conjugal,  245; 
and  descent,  167-169,  250;  fra- 
ternal, Arapaho,  250;  frater- 
nal, Thonga,  2>7}-2>72;  heredi- 
tary and  acquired  property. 
243 ;  Hidatsa,  243-244 ;  Hopi, 
217;  hunting  grounds,  Algon- 
kians, 213  ;  incorporeal  prop- 
erty, 237-238,  242;  influence 
on  marriage  customs,  245  ;  in- 
fluence of  sib  on  rules  of,  245- 
247;  land,  in  Melanesia,  225- 
226;  Kai,  243,  244;  multiple, 
246f.,  251;  Northwest  Coast, 
354;  ill  Oceania,  180;  Ostyak, 
200,  245  ;  primogeniture,  248f. ; 
property,  Ewe  women,  20; 
reincTeer  herds,  245;  rules, 
Chukchi  and  Koryak,  177 : 
rules,  cross-cousin  marriage  a 
result  of,  30-31  ;  rules,  Eski- 
mo, 253;  sib,  245f. ;  Torres 
Straits  Islands,  .227,  243;  by 
women,  244f. 


456 


PRIMITIVE  SOCIETY 


Initiation  rites,  Andamans,  259- 
261 ;  Arunta,  318 ;  Australia, 
264-266;  Banks  Islands,  276, 
279-281 ;  boys,  Solomon  Is- 
lands, 368;  and  bull-roarer, 
311-313;  Crow  Tobacco  socie- 
ties, 286-288;  diffusion  of, 
313;  Masai,  271-275,  318; 
Melanesia,  276,  368;  not  tribal 
in  North  America,  318,  Zuni, 
282. 

Instability  of  family  unit,  68-70. 

Joint-Ownership,  of  property, 
206. 

Joking-relatives,  385. 

Joking-relationship,  Crow  and  Hi- 
datsa,  100,  loi. 

Junior  levirate,  distribution,  32- 
S2 ;  parallel  to,  in  the  soro- 
rate,  36-37 ;  taboos  connected 
with,  102,  103,  104;  theory  of 
origin,  35. 

Junior-right,  251-254;  and  con- 
vergence, 254;  with  primo- 
geniture, 251  f. 

Justice,  Africa,  318-425  ;  Australia, 
406-409;  Eskimo,  412-415; 
Ifugao,  409-412;  Plains  In- 
dians, 415-416;  Polynesia,  416. 

Kin,  alignment,  in  matrilocal  resi- 
dence, 71-72,  191-192;  in  patri- 
local  residence,  70-71  ;  moth- 
er's and  father's,  81-84. 
angs,  349,  365,  370  seq. ;  Africa, 
350 ;  Dahomi,  380-381  ;  Ewe, 
376-377,  378:  Hawaiian,  417; 
powers  of,  359;  supreme  judge, 
417,  424;  Thonga,  371-372; 
Yorubaland,    381 ;    Zulu,    373- 

375- 
Kinship,  avunculate  a  definite  type 
of,  172-173;  basis  of  the  sib, 
in;  classification,  influence 
on  cross-cousin  marriage,  32; 
group,  as  judicial  body,  397; 
Hidatsa,  65,  84 ;  and  law, 
Ifugao,  301-392,  409-412;  or- 
ganization, see  sib ;  and  politi- 
cal organization,  305-396; 
among  siblings,  114;  systems, 
distinguishing  lineal  and  col- 
lateral kin,  155;  Hawaiian,  58- 


59;  influence  of  sib  organiza- 
tion upon,  162;  terminology, 
Australian,  270 ;  Dakota,  60, 
61,  114-115;  Dakota  and  the 
sib,  134,  162-166;  Crow,  60; 
Crow  sib-mates,  117;  as  evi- 
dence of  universality  of  the 
family  unit,  64 ;  factor  in  mar- 
riage prohibitions,  16;  Ha- 
waiian, 57,  154;  Hidatsa,  60; 
influenced  by  levirate  and  so- 
rorate,  37-38;  influence  of  sib, 
113;  Miwok  Paviotso,  16;  Si- 
berian, 103 ;  Yahi,  37-38 ; 
Wishram,  37;  reciprocal,  270; 
Thonga,  64;  Torres  Straits 
Islanders,  65 ;   usages,  80-109, 

Kohler,  on  group  marriage,  61. 

Kroeber,  analysis  of  Southwest- 
ern sib  system,  127 ;  on  Pa- 
cific Coast  separations,  387 ; 
on  Pueblo  ceremonial  organi- 
zation, 282-286;  on  Pueblo 
matrilocal  _  units,  73  ;  on  sibs 
and  societies,  283  seq. 

Laror,  sexual  division  of,  66,  74- 
75,  160-161,  i87,_  198,  202;  An- 
damans, 262;  importance  in 
social  history  of  mankind,  183  ; 
Kirgiz,  76 ;  Thonga,  76 ;  Toda, 

76- 
Land,  African  tribes,  ownership 
of,  221-225 ;  Australian  atti- 
tude toward  ownership,  213- 
214;  communal  ownership  of, 
206,  231  ;  division  of  con- 
quered, New  Zealand,  228 ; 
hereditary,  225 ;  joint  owner- 
ship of,  220,  231,  232;  joint 
ownership,  Ifugao,  229;  own- 
ership, in  ancient  Mexico,  218- 
219;  ownership  by  sib  denied, 
216-217;  ownership,  in  South 
America,  219-220;  tenure,  210- 
233;  tenure,  Africa,  221-225; 
tenure,  in  America,  216-220 ; 
tenure,  feudal,  224,  227 ; 
tenure,  among  hunting  tribes, 
211-215;  tenure,  Ifugao,  229- 
231;  tenure,  India,  231-233; 
tenure,  individual  or  com- 
munal, 211  seq.,  229-233;  ten- 
ure,  among   pastoral   peoples. 


INDEX 


457 


2i5f. ;  tenure,  in  Oceania,  225- 
229 ;  tenure,  among  tillers, 
216-233;  transfer,  in  Africa 
generally,  221  ;  transfer, 
among  Ewe,  223 ;  transfer, 
Fiji,  226;  transfer,  Ifugao, 
230-231  ;  transfer,  impossible 
in  Mexico,  219. 

Laufer,  on  primitive  ceramics, 
75;  on  Chinese  family  life,  76. 

Laws,  civil,  397 ;  criminal,  397- 
399 ;  Ewe,  zn  ',  fundamental, 
precluding  incest,  105 ;  socio- 
logical and  historical,  see  uni- 
linear evolution ;  underlying 
civilization,    5-6. 

League   of   the    Iroquois,   388-389. 

Legends,  local,  proprietorship  of, 
.236. 

Legislative  functions,  primitive 
communities,  358. 

Levirate,  156,  174:  Crow,  102;  de- 
fined, 19;  distribution  of,  Z'^- 
36 ;  Frazer  interprets  as  a  relic 
of  group  marriage,  62;  Hidat- 
sa,  21  ;  influence  on  Dakota 
terminology,  114;  influence  on 
kinship  classifications,  61,  163- 
165 ;  influence  of  marriage  by 
purchase,  34 ;  influence  on  so- 
cial relations,  81. 

Lineage,  importance  in  the  North- 
west Coast,  354-355- 

Licensed  wife  stealing,  68. 

Live  stock,  property  rights  in  con- 
nection   with,   234-235. 

Magic  formulas,  individual  own- 
ership of,  236. 

Majority  vote,  absence  of,  369, 
.387. 

Maine,  comparison  of  rude  and 
mature  jurisprudence:  crimes 
and  torts,  397  seq. ;  on  col- 
lective ownership,  206  ;  his  his- 
torical method,  436 ;  on  inher- 
itance of  land,  243;  on  joint 
ownership,  especially  of  land, 
206  231  ;  on  political  organi- 
zation of  society,  391. 

Alaitland,  on  dTflfusion  and  so- 
ciological  laws,  435. 

Marriage,  14-38 ;  on  the  Amazon, 
165;    Australian,    266-268;    by 


capture,  23-24 ;  economic  basis 
of,  64-66;  by  exchange,  17; 
form  of,  Dicri,  52-54;  Hupa, 
70-71  ;  individual,  not  in- 
fluenced by  sexual  commun- 
ism, 50,  51,  52;  Kai,  82;  Ka- 
riera,  172;  Koryak,  22;  Ma- 
kondc,  82 ;  by  mutual  consent, 
24  ;  Natchez,  352  ;  prohibitions, 
15-17;  hy  purchase,  17,  19-21, 
24-25;  (Dstyak,  200;  Reindeer 
Chukchi,  200;  regulations, 
Australian,  105 ;  regulations, 
Melanesia,  105 ;  regulations, 
for  relatives  by,  84-97  I  Thon- 
ga,  82;  Tibetan,  46;  transfer 
of  property  in,  205  ;  Zulu,  374. 
Masked  Dancer  society,  Zuni,  281- 

283. 
Mate,  means   of  acquiring,   17-26. 
Maternal     uncle,     relations     with 
nephew,  82-83. 

Mating,  preferential,  26-38. 
Matriarchate,  the,  189-191  ;  Iro- 
quois, 190;  among  Khasi,  189, 
190;  not  consequence  of 
mother-sibs,  i89f. ;  Pueblo, 
190. 

Matrilineal  descent,  influence  of 
property  rights  upon,  160 ; 
Hopi,  176;  Northwest  Coast 
tribes,   128;   Zuni,   127. 

Matrflineal   groups,    168. 

Matrilineal  kinship  group,  in- 
fluence of  matrilocal  residence 
on,   159. 

Matrilocal  marriage,  influence  on 
parent-in-law  taboos,  94,  96. 

Matrilocal  residence,  159;  causal 
connection  with  teknonvmy, 
107,  108;  Eskimo,  -72,;  Hidat- 
sa,  "j^;  Hopi,  42,  164;  in- 
fluence on  kinship  sj^stem,  164; 
influence  on  practice  of  poly- 
gyny, 42;  Kai,  102;  Khasi, 
72 ;  Ovambo,  ^2  ;  Pueblo,  192  ; 
and  woman's  position,  191- 
192;  Yukaghir,  72-73,  178,  192. 

Matrilocal   tribes,   70-72. 

Matronymic  groups,  64-65. 

McLennan,  on  Hawaiian  kinship 
system,  59. 

Men's  clubs.  Crow,  287;  Mela- 
nesia,  276;   see   also   Military 


458 


PRIMITIVE  SOCIETY 


societies,  Associations,  Secret 
Societies. 

Men's  clubhouse,  Banks  Islands, 
276 ;  genetic  connection  with 
bachelor's  dormitory,  257. 

Men's  house,  197,  299,  306,  307, 
308,  315-316,  317,  368;  in 
Schurtz's   scheme,  299. 

Men's  tribal  society,  in  Australia, 
263 ;  Melanesia,  275 ;  Pueblo 
Indians,  282. 

Menstruation,  primitive  horror  of, 
203. 

Merker,  on  African  sibs,  137. 

Military,  associations.  Crow,  288- 
291  ;  Hidatsa,  292-296 ;  clubs, 
Hidatsa,  241 ;  organizations, 
Hidatsa,  292-293 ;  renown, 
quest  for ;  Bagobo,  341 ;  Ma- 
sai, 342;  New  Zealand,  341; 
Plains  Indians,  339-341  ;  so- 
cieties, Crow,  288-291  ;  socie- 
ties, Hidatsa,  292  seq.,  342, 
seq. 

Moieties,  Australian,  266-267 ;  and 
Dakota  type  of  kinship  no- 
menclature, 134;  defined,  118; 
Eastern  North  America  and 
Plains  sibs,  125 ;  exogamous 
patrilineal,  Miwok,  119;  ex- 
ogamous and  non-exogamous, 
132-133 ;  group,  sibs  east  of 
the  Mississippi,  123 ;  Iroquois, 
132;  Northwest  Coast  tribes, 
136-137;  theory  of  origin  of, 
135-137;  Winnebago,   118. 

Monarchical  government,  Africa, 
369-370 ;  Congo,  Ewe,  376- 
380;  Thonga,  370-373;  Yoru- 
baland,  381-382;  Zulu,  373- 
375- 

Monarchy,  and  land  law,  221,  224. 
See  Kings,  Despotism,  Chiefs. 

Monogamy,  Andamans,  167 ;  Eski- 
mo, 41;  Hopi,  42;  Kai,  42; 
Kikuyu,  41;  Kirgiz,  42;  Yu- 
kaghir,  42;   Zuni,  42. 

Morgan,  atomistic  theory  of  so- 
ciety, 257,  338,  390,  427;  cf. 
with  Schurtz,  301  seq. ;  criti- 
cism of  his  theories  on  the 
family  and  the  sib,  147-151  ; 
on  democracy,  356,  389 ;  on 
descent    and    transmission    of 


property,  169 ;  on  develop- 
ment of  human  marriage,  55- 
62;  on  development  of  lesser 
and  greater  sibs,  130-131  ;  on 
the  exogamic  sib,  147-148;  on 
group  marriage,  61-62;  inade- 
quacy of  his  scheme  of  or- 
ganization of  primitive  so- 
ciety, 257 ;  on  the  levirate,  62 ; 
on  marriage,  55-62;  on  origin 
of  sib  organization,  122;  on 
primitive"  democracy,  338,  351, 
389 ;  on  primitive  political  or- 
ganization, 390,  391 ;  on  prior- 
ity of  matrilineal  descent,  166; 
on  stability  of  kinship  terms, 
155. 

Mother-sibs,  defined,  iii,  112;  de- 
velopment of,  Hidatsa,  160 ; 
exogamous.  Crow,  116;  and 
father-sibs,  166-185 ;  Hopi, 
116,  117;  relative  priority  of, 
in    Oceania,    179. 

Alotive,   criminal,   40of. 

Murder,  not  always  a  crime,  407 ; 
in  the  Plains,  415  ;  punishment 
for,  404,  414,  416,  417. 

Names,  animals,  for  sibs,  137-138; 
avoidance  of  use  of,  of  those 
under  taboo,  86-88;  Eastern 
North  American  sibs,  125 ;  in- 
dividual ownership  of,  236, 
237 ;  individual  and  personal, 
Iroquois  sibs,  143 ;  Miwok 
moieties,  119;  Mohegan  sibs, 
131;  personal,  Miwok,  119; 
sibs.  Crow;  sibs,  Hopi,  117; 
sibs,  east  of  the  Mississippi, 
123,  124;  taboos,  89-90,  106; 
Winnebago  father-sibs,  118- 
119. 

Naming  customs,  83,  84,   119. 

Nicknames  for  social  units,  116, 
126. 

Oaths,  405;  Ewe,  421-422. 
Ordeals,    405,    406,    412,    418,    419, 

422;  Australian  initiation,  265; 

Banks   Islands,  280-281  ;   Ewe, 

419-420;   Hawaii,  418;   Masai, 

271  ;    Thonga,   422. 
Orphans,    status   among  primitive 

peoples,  11-12. 


INDEX 


459 


Parallel  cousins,  29  ;  defined,  26 ; 
marriage  tabooed  between, 
165.. 

Parallelism.  See  Independent  De- 
velopment. 

Parent-in-law  taboos,  occurrence 
in  different  regions,  85-86,  87, 
88,  93-94,   103-104,   105-106. 

Parsons,  rejects  Frazer's  theory  of 
social  taboos,  104;  on  teknony- 
my,  262. 

Pastoral  life,  woman's  status  in, 
193,   195,    198. 

Paternal  kin,  usages  connected 
with,   81,   83-84. 

Paternal  sibs,  Siberia,   177-178. 

Patrilineal,  groups,  168,  172;  seg- 
regation of  kin,  Algonkian 
tribes,  160;  tribes,  171. 

Patrilocal,  groups,  of  women,  160- 
161;  residence,  70-74;  resi- 
dence, on  the  Amazon,  165 ; 
residence,  among  the  Aus- 
tralians, 161 ;  residence,  Eski- 
mo, TZ',  residence,  Hupa,  112, 
157-158;  residence,  Koryak, 
72-73 ;  residence,  influence  on 
parent-in-law  taboo,  95-96 ; 
residence,  among  matrilineal 
people,  159 ;  residence,  in 
Oceania,  180;  residence,  Si- 
beria,  178;   tribes,   70-71. 

Patronymic  groups,  63-64,  65. 

Pawning,  of  land,  230;  of  person, 
234- 

Pearson,  on  sociological  laws, 
4,  436. 

Penalties,  exacted  for  crimes,  399- 
400,  417. 

Philbrick,  on  the  sib,  iii. 

Plundering  expeditions,  against 
criminal,  417-418. 

Police  organization,  Plains  In- 
dians, 385-386,  4i5f. 

Political  functions,  Ostyak  sibs, 
120;  Winnebago  sibs,  119,  121. 

Political  organization,  358;  Africa, 
221-225,  369-383 ;  America, 
220;  and  associations,  395 f. ; 
Australia,  359-361 ;  Bakuba, 
380-381  ;  coexistence  with  sibs, 
392  seq. ;  Dahomi,  379-380 ; 
defined,  358-359;  Ewe,  376- 
378;   lack   of   among   Ifugao, 


391  f.;  Maine's  and  Morgan's 
theory  of,  390,  391  ;  Melanesia 
and  New  Guinea,  367-369 ; 
Natchez,  383 ;  New  Zealand, 
Z^^-2>(i2„  365  ;  Northwest  Coast, 
383-384;  in  Oceania,  22;  Sa- 
moa, 229,  363-367 ;  Thonga, 
370-373 ;  Yorubaland,  381  ; 
.Zulu,  2>7i-2,77- 

Political  society,  Schurtz  on  ori- 
gin of,  394-396. 

Polyandry,  45-49,  205 ;  Chukchi, 
52;  distribution  of,  45;  eco- 
nomic influence  on,  45-46 ;  fra- 
ternal variety,  46-48 ;  Toda, 
49,  167. 

Polygamy,  40-62,  205  ;  defined,  40 ; 
influenced  by  biological  and 
economic  conditions,  40,  42,  45. 

Polygynj^  205 ;  analysis  among 
Reindeer  Koryak,  43-44;  de- 
fined, 40;  distribution,  40-41, 
43,  44,  48 ;  economic  condi- 
tions influence,  43-44;  limita- 
tion by  matrilocal  residence, 
72 ;  motives  for,  42-44. 

Population,  proportion  of  male 
and  female,  Eskimo,  40-41  ; 
Toda,   46-47. 

Potential  mates,  licensed  familiar- 
ity between,  102. 

Preferential  mating,  distribution, 
_  17-18. 

Primogeniture,  248-255 ;  Maori, 
346;  New  Zealand,  345,  362; 
Nootka,  354,  355  ;  Samoa,  349 ; 
_  Thonga,   2,7}:2>72. 

Privileged  familiarity,  99-101,  103. 

Progress,  437  seq. 

Prohibitions,   marriage,   15-17. 

Property,  205-255  ;  collective  own- 
ership of,  206;  concepts,  basis 
of  levirate,  34-35 ;  conveyance, 
by  Ewe,  223 ;  and  cross- 
cousin  marriage,  31 ;  Crow, 
168;  Hidatsa,  _  168;  and  the 
Hopi  sib,  117;  individual  own- 
ership of,  208;  inheritance  of, 
189,  190;  influence  on  rank  on 
the  Northwest  Coast,  354 ; 
Navaho,  168 ;  ownership,  by 
woman,  160,  161  ;  ownership, 
Yuchi,  217;  ownership,  Zuni, 
217;     rights,     Banks     Island 


460 


PRIMITIVE  SOCIETY 


club,  277;  rights,  influence  on 
establishment  of  unilateral 
lines  of  kin,  165;  rights,  in- 
fluence of  sib  organization, 
245-248 ;  rights.  New  Zealand, 
228-229;  rights,  of  women, 
202;  sale  of.  Ewe,  223;  trans- 
mission of,  means  of  estab- 
lishing unilateral  descent,  157, 
158-159,  167 ;  transmission  of, 
Morgan's  theories  on,  166 ; 
transmission,  among  patri- 
lineal and  matrilineal  tribes, 
167-168. 

Psychological  interpretation  for 
cultural  data,  93-94. 

Puberty,  in  North  America,  318- 
319 ;  coincident  with  Initia- 
tion, 261,  310.     See  Initiation. 

Public  opinion,  in  primitive  so- 
ciety, force  of,  385,  398,  407, 
409  seq. 

Punishment  for  crimes,  Ifugao, 
412;  Uganda,  425. 

Purchase,  ceremonial  privileges, 
Plains  age-societies,  328 ;  con- 
cept, in  marriage,  22,  23 ;  of 
foreign  societies,  influence  on 
graded  systems  in  the  Plains, 
329-331 ;  importance  in  en- 
trance to  Hidatsa  military  or- 
ganizations, 292-293 ;  member- 
ship in  club,  242,  276,  286,  292, 
300,  324. 

Rank,  338-357- 

Reciprocal  services,  between  moie- 
ties,  133-134- 

Relations,  social,  relatives  by 
blood  and  marriage,  80-81. 

Religious  functions,  Ostyak  sibs, 
120. 

Ritualism,  Hopi,  mfluence  on  sib 
system,  117;  importance  of 
Iroquois  woman  in,  197 ;  Toda 
women  excluded  from,  187. 

Rituals,    individual   ownership   of. 

Rivalry,  Crow  military  associa- 
tions,  2<')0-292. 

Rivers,  on  Dakota  type  of  kinship 
terminology  and  the  sib  sys- 
tem, 114;  on  kinship  usages, 
81,    83;    on    Polynesian    and 


Melanesian  sib  systems,  154; 
theory  of  origin  of  cross- 
cousin  marriage,  30 ;  on  Toda 
exogamous  marriages,  136. 
Royalty,  Africa,  349f.,  in  North 
America,  351  f.,  and  ownership 
of  lands,  221,  224;  Polynesia, 
346. 

Sapir,  on  influence  of  sororate 
and  levirate  on  kinship,  37. 

Schurtz,  on  association's,  257 ; 
compared  with  Morgan  as  to 
method,  301  seq. ;  criticised, 
304  seq. ;  his  scheme  ex- 
pounded, 297  seq. ;  on  politi- 
cal organization,  395-396. 

Segregation   of   unmarried,   76-77. 

Sex  dichotomy,  196,  197,  263,  275, 
303-313,  316;  in  Australia, 
258;  Banks  Islands,  275. 

Sexes,  segregation  of,  306-307; 
Africa,  310;  Andaman  Islands, 
259,  317;  Australia,  263,  310; 
California,  307;  Chipewyan, 
309 ;  Masai,  271 ;  Melanesia, 
310. 

Sexual  communism,  49-55 ;  Aus- 
tralia, 52,  55 ;  Bororo,  50,  51 ; 
Chukchi,  51-52,  55;  hypotheti- 
cal, 55-62;  Masai,  50-51 ;  Toda, 
54- 

Shamanism,  342-345 ;  in  Australia, 
308;  in  North  America,  307- 
308. 

Sibs,  111-146;  Australia,  156,  393; 
Crow,  130;  and  Dakota  termi- 
nology, 162-166;  defined,  iii- 
112,  157;  and  democracy  in 
primitive  organizations,  389- 
390;  diflfusion  in  Australia, 
152;  diffusion  in  North  Amer- 
ica, 122-130,  150,  152,  176;  dis- 
tribution of,  148 ;  distribution 
in  Asia,  151 ;  diversity  of 
functions  of,  122 ;  exogamous 
matrilineal,  Buin,  120;  exo- 
gamous, Morgan's  theories 
concerning,  147-148;  exoga- 
mous patrilineal,  121  ;  funda- 
mental units  of  Crow  social 
organization,  131  ;  of  higher 
or(ler,  130-137;  history  of  the, 
147-185;     inferior,    351,    390; 


INDEX 


461 


Iroquois,  143,  388;  Kariera, 
association  with  plants  and 
animals,  138;  linked,  127,  130, 
131 ;  Masai,  271  ;  membership 
in,  influence  of  marriage  on, 
115;  organization,  Blackfoot, 
124;  organization,  California, 
128;  organization,  Gros  Ven- 
tre, 124;  organization,  in- 
fluence on  transmission  of 
property,  205 ;  organization, 
lacking  among  Fuegians,  151  ; 
organization,  Masai,  270-271, 
275 ;  organization,  in  North 
America,  122-123;  organiza- 
tion, and  kinship  systems,  162  ; 
origin  of  lesser  organization, 
tripartite,  Alohegan,  131 :  or- 
ganization, relation  to  Pueblo 
fraternities,  283-285 ;  organi- 
zation, Siberia,  177-179;  or- 
ganization, types  of,  1 16-122; 
organization,  unity  or  diver- 
sity of  origin,  122-130;  patri- 
lineal, California,  128;  and 
greater  units,  130-131,  157-162; 
as  proprietary  unit,  216  seq., 
224,  245 ;  restricted  distribu- 
tion of  unilateral,  147;  and  se- 
cret societies,  283 ;  survival 
after  contact  with  Caucasians, 

^53- 

Sib  system.  Admiralty  Islands, 
121 ;  alleged  effects  on  mar- 
riage system,  148 ;  Blackfoot, 
126;  Buin,  120-121  ;  California, 
153-154;  correlation  with  Da- 
kota type  of  kinship  terminol- 
ogy, 150;  Crow,  116-117;  dis- 
tribution in  Africa,  151-152; 
diversity  in  North  America, 
126;  east  of  the  Mississippi, 
123-124;  Gros  Ventre,  history 
of,  125-126;  Hopi,  117;  inde- 
pendent development  through- 
out the  world,  129;  Kariera, 
121  ;  lacking  in  the  Andaman 
Islands,  151;  Melanesia,  120; 
northwestern  plains  of  North 
America,  124-125 ;  northwest 
coast  of  North  America,  128- 
129 ;  in  the  Southwest,  127 ; 
Winnebago,   118;  Zuni,   127. 

Siblings,    defined,    26;    restriction 


of  intimacy  between,  102; 
usages  connected  with  fath- 
er's, 84. 

Singing  contests,  Eskimo,  413. 

Sins,  and  crimes,  '398,  414. 

Sisters,  exchange  of,  in  mating, 
18. 

Slavery,  346f.,  350,  353,  356; 
Africa,  234,  350;  Maori,  346- 
347;  Northwest  Coast,  353. 

Smith,  G.  Elliot,  theory  of  origin 
of  totemism,  138. 

Social,  grouping.  Banks  Islands, 
276-277;  Masai,  271-275. 

Social  intercourse,  restrictions  in, 
97-99. 

Social  organization,  Andaman  Is- 
lands, 258-262;  Australia,  262- 
270;  Banks  Islands,  275-281; 
Crow,  286-292 ;  evolution  com- 
pared with  that  of  material 
culture,  437  seq. ;  Hidatsa,  292- 
296;  interrelations  of  various 
aspects  of,  14;  intricate,  found 
with  rude  cultures,  149 ;  Ma- 
sai, 270-275 ;  Pueblo  Indians, 
281-286. 

Social  progress,  distinguishing 
stages  of,  in  Australia,  264. 

Social  relations,  influence  of  kin- 
ship usages  on,  80-81. 

Social  restrictions,  connection  wUh 
sexual  restrictions,  102. 

Social  status,  stages  of,  Masai, 
definite  usages  linked  with, 
271-272. 

Social  stratification,  Marshall  Is- 
lands, 365-366. 

Social  usages,  importance  of  ma- 
ternal and  paternal  kin  in,  65. 

Social  and  sexual  taboos,  psycho- 
logical  interpretation  of,   104, 

Societies,  graded.  Plains,  326-332; 

women's,  Africa,  309-310. 
Societies,  secret,  Africa,  309,  381, 

419;    Banks   Islands,   278-281; 

California,    307,    308;    Central 

Algonkian,  305  ;  Hidatsa,  295  ; 

Melanesia,      278      seq.,      336; 

Omaha,  320;   Pueblo,  282;   in 

Schurtz's    scheme,    300. 
Society     membership,      form     of 

property,  240,  241  f. 


462 


PRIMITIVE  SOCIETY 


Songs,  individual  ownership  of, 
235-236. 

Sorcery,  Ewe,  419-420 ;  Thonga, 
422. 

Sororate,  Crow,  102;  defined,  18; 
distribution  of,  32-37;  Hidat- 
sa,  44 ;  influence  on  Dakota 
type  of  terminology,  114;  in- 
fluence on  kinship  terminol- 
ogy and  classification,  61,  163; 
influence  on  social  relations, 
81 ;  Kariera,  18 ;  Morgan  in- 
terprets as  a  relic  of  group 
marriage,  62. 

Speck  on  individually  owned 
hunting  grounds,  158,  160, 
21  if. 

Spinsters    segregated,    Andamans, 

259- 

Spouses,  status  of,  in  matrilocal 
and  patrilbcal  residence,  70- 
71,  12. 

Status  terms,  in  Andamans,  259, 
262 ;  in  Australia,  264 ;  Masai, 
271. 

Suitor's  test,  Arawak,  22-23 ;  Kor- 
yak,  23-24. 

Supernatural  experiences,  com- 
mon, associations  based  on, 
Plains    Indians,   320-321. 

Swanton,  on  cross-cousin  mar- 
riage, 31 ;  on  the  sib,  in  North 
AmerTca,  150. 

Taboos,  barring  social  inter- 
course, 97-99;  food,  Aus- 
tralian, 264-265;  food,  Toda, 
75 ;  against  incest,  universal, 
15 ;  connected  with  initiation 
in  the  Andamans,  260,  261 ; 
against  killing  or  eating  totem 
animals,  139;  kinship,  97-98; 
and  license,  101-107;  New 
Zealand,  362-363  ;jOceania  gen- 
erally, 363 ;  parcnt-in-law,_  84- 
97,  107 ;  Polynesian  chief's 
prerogative,  362f. ;  protection 
of  property,  279,  363;  social 
and  sexual,  correlation  be- 
tween, 104;  transgression  of, 
punishment    for,   414. 

Teggart,  on  political  organiza- 
tion, 395. 


Teknonymy,  defined,  107;  exam- 
ples of  practice,  107-109;  ex- 
planation of,  262;  ^and  status 
terms,  262. 

Territorial  organization,  Aus- 
tralia, 393;  Melanesia,  393-394. 
See    Political    Organization. 

Territorial  rights,  jealousy  re- 
garding, 394. 

Theft,  punishment  for,  424. 

Three-class  division  of  society, 
Ifugao,    402. 

Thurnwald,  on  Buin  sib  system, 
120. 

Tobacco,  planting,  Crow,  owner- 
shij)  and  transfer  of  privilege, 
240-241;  society,  286;  society, 
women's  place  in,  305. 

Torts,  398  seq. 

Totemism,  137-145,  264;  Arunta, 
138;  British  Columbia,  .140; 
Central  Australian  type  of, 
140;  diffusion  of,  138;  Golden- 
vveiser  on,  140;  Iroquois,  143; 
theories  of  origin  of,  138-139; 
and  the  sib,  142. 

Trade  unions,  Cheyenne,  305 ;  Sa- 
moan,  348. 

Tribal  organization.  See  Politi- 
cal Organization,  Sib,  390-396 ; 
Ifugao.  391-392. 

Tripartite  division  of  society,  258, 
259,  261-262,   298. 

Tylor,  on  cross-cousin  marriage, 
29-30;  on  Dakota  type  of  kin- 
ship terminology  and  sib  sys- 
tem, 114;  interpretation  of 
parent-in-law  avoidance,  94- 
97;  on  the  levirate,  2^2,  33-34, 
36 ;  matrilineal  and  patrilineal 
stages  of  culture,  169-183 ;  on 
matrilocal  residence,  159;  on 
primitive  marriage,  35 ;  on 
teknonymy,  107-108. 

Unilateral,  descent,  most  effec- 
tive means  of  establishing, 
157;  reckoning  of  kinship,  161- 
162. 

Unilinear  evolution,  301  seq.,  334, 
336f.,  430f. 

Vision,  importance  of  influence  on 


INDEX 


463 


Plains  societies,  332;  owner- 
ship of  privileges  secured 
through,  238 ;  qncst  of,  an  in- 
dividual affair  in  the  Plains, 
318-319. 
Visionary  experiences,  individual 
character  of  proprietary 
rights,  242. 

Wealth,  342-345 ;  conception  of, 
among  various  peoples,  343- 
344  ;  determines  penalties,  402 ; 
influence  on  prestige,  277, 
343  f.,  368. 

Webster,  on  associations,  257. 

Weregild,  402-404. 

Witchcraft  and  justice,  414,  4i9f. 

Wives,  abduction  of.  Crow,  290- 
292;  exchange  of,  51-52;  sur- 
render  of,   49. 

Wife-stealing,  licensed.  Crow,  68. 

Woman,  excluded  from  activities 
of  men,  74,  75,  T] ;  excluded 
from  mysteries,  263,  279 ;  Von 
den  Steineh's  and  Radin's  ex- 
planation, 304 ;  as  herd  owner, 
200-201  ;  as  house  owner,  190, 
216,  246 ;  individual  owner- 
ship of  property  by,  233-234; 
inferiority  of,  differences  in 
character  among  Chukchi,  Os- 
tyak,  and  Oceanians,  196;  as 
inheritor,    200,    245 ;    isolation 


of.  Banks  Islands,  'j'] ;  as  land 
owner,  214,  218,  224;  as  owner 
of  chattels,  ^i},,  245 ;  and 
property  rights,  in  Africa,  224- 
225;  segregation  of,  197; 
segregation  during  menstrua- 
tion, 203. 

Woman,  position  of,  74-76,  183- 
203;  Andamans,  187,  193,  201; 
Australia,  202,  263,  189;  Afri- 
ca, 189  ;  Bantu,  201 ;  Central 
Asia,  187,  201  ;  Chinese,  188, 
201  ;  Ewe,  20;  influence  of  eco- 
nomic conditions,  193  seq. ; 
influence  of  maternal  sibs,  189 
seq. ;  influence  of  matrilocal 
residence,  191 ;  influence  of 
pastoral  life,  193-195 ;  in- 
fluence of  stage  of  civiliza- 
tion, 201-203 ;  influence  on 
teknonymy,  109 ;  Iroquois, 
201  ;  Kai,  20  ;  Kirgiz,  19  ;  legal 
and  real  status  of,  186,  188; 
Maritime  and  Reindeer  Chuk- 
chi, 199-200;  Ostyak,  200; 
and  property  rights,  202;  in 
social  organization,  303-313; 
Siberia,  187-188;  Thonga,  20; 
Toda,  187;  Vedda,  193,  201. 

Women's  societies,  African,  309; 
Cheyenne,  305;  Hidatsa,  294; 
Pueblo,  305. 


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